Agent of Chaos
by The Mandalorian Batman
Summary: When the Purgill had taken Ezra and Thrawn out into the Unknown Regions, Ezra knew that all kinds of new possibilities were now in play. Thrawn was the Empire's ace in the hole, so now that he was gone, the Empire was going to turn to someone they may not entirely understand, a desperate attempt to regain their hold on the galaxy. (Rewrite of Star Wars Rebels: The Beginning)
1. A Watchful Guardian

**UNKNOWN REGIONS, TWENTY FOUR HOURS AFTER THE BATTLE OF LOTHAL**

When the Purgill had told Ezra that they couldn't carry the weight of the Chimera any farther, Ezra had understood. This was what he was meant to do. Thrawn however, panicked when the space travellers departed. He looked like he was screaming, but in the vacuum of space, no sound was made.

Ezra knew he was going to die here, but he couldn't shake the feeling that in his death, he would give rise to something terrible, something worse than Thrawn, and the force was moving differently than it was supposed to when a Jedi's end was near, different than Kanan described. It continued on, like he was still meant to live. This was deeply concerning, if he died, something worse that Thrawn could rise in his place. And without the coordination and brilliance of the admiral, the Empire will get desperate, and in that desperation, they may turn to a man they may not fully understand.

It was as someone once told him, introduce a little chaos into the established order, and everything becomes chaos. Then he had another thought, if he was gone, it was entirely possible that one of his old demons would emerge, one from his _other_ life. If that happened, more of them would soon follow, and no one would be there to stop it. Some would hit Sullust, some would hit the rebel alliance on Yavin. But one, only one, would go to Mandalore. The worst would go there, order, honor, loyalty, Mandalorians lived and died by those rules. What was scary about that thought was one, because if the one he was thinking of went there, they would show them what chaos can do to a people who live by such strict rules and guidelines. Honor, loyalty, it would all be thrown out the window. And if Mandalore ever fell because of one singular person, the entire galaxy would know that if Mandalore fell, the planet with the best warriors in the galaxy, what chances did other's have? Ezra knew _exactly_ who would take pleasure in burning Mandalore to the ground. And two, there was Sabine. She would race to her family's aid if such an event happened, and the force gave him this hunch that it would.

But what happens when they met someone who had no rules, who didn't have a plan? A man who only wanted destroy, torture, and burn? Ezra knew exactly who that was. So in one last, desperate action, he reached out into the force, into the darkness, hoping, praying for the call to be heard.

And the darkness answered. _He_ answered.

* * *

 **LOTHAL, SIX YEARS BEFORE MEETING KANAN**

When Ezra's parents had been taken he'd had no one, nothing. That was why he'd run from the city and taken up residence in a tower, the comm tower. He would venture into the city only to get food and sometimes credits. How he earned said credits was the shady part of his life. There was one such time did so to get fruit and water, but the shop he usually stole from was shut down, due to his mischief. So he had to go into the supermarket, which he tried to avoid, since Imperial police liked to be sure nothing was stolen.

Now, keep in mind that this market also sold blasters, mainly to the Imperials. Ezra had taken fruit from a shelf and shoved it in his pack. When he was making his escape, an Imperial in unusual armor spotted him. Ezra didn't go back to his tower, instead he ran far out into the fields, and hid behind a large cone shaped rock. The young boy, not knowing how to use force powers yet, thought he had lost the man. When turned around however, he was tower above him, lightsaber in hand.

It was only later that he would discover this man was an Inquisitor, "I was under the impression that all the younglings were killed during Order 66," The man had said to him, "Shame, now I have to explain the screaming to the authorities." The force user raised his blade above Ezra's head, he was going to scream too, but then something happened. Ezra heard the Inquisitor's blade swipe down as he closed his eyes, but the end didn't come, the heat of the blade never entered his chest. He opened his eyes to see the Inquisitor pulled into a dark corner, a hand covering his mouth as he was dragged into the darkness.

The cries of the Inquisitor were heard for a moment before being silenced almost instantly, along with the crack of a fist against a skull. Ezra got to his feet when the area was completely and utterly silent, and started moving his way toward the dark area. And as he got closer, he could feel something he would only ever feel in two other individuals. The anger, the hate... the cold. But there was something else, something different- vengeance. When he was mere feet away from the corner, a dark shadow consumed him from above, and carried him up into the afternoon sky.

After a moment the ascend stopped and the shadow around him unwrapped itself from him, but instantly dragged him over the side of a rock, and grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, and dangled him over the side of the large stone that Lothal prided itself for, "Who are you?" A gruff, terrifying voice yelled, "Why was he trying kill you? **Answer me!** "

"I- I don't know!" Ezra stuttered out, not daring to open his eyes, "I was just trying to get food from the market! Please, I did nothing wrong!" Then he felt a strong tug at his collar, pulling him closer to the shadow, so close he could feel it's angry breaths on his face.

"Except steal from a local supermarket," The man said, throwing him onto the solid part of the rock. This was when Ezra opened his eyes, to see a dark figure, in a helmet with long sharp ears, and armor that looked like some form of metal, and made to be terrifying. And in the center, a large bat emblem, a symbol that he would one day wear, a symbol that he would one day use to protect his family, "I'm going to call the authorities, have you kept safe."

"No!" Ezra shouted, "That man belonged to the government, and the police here belong to the government, you put me under their care, they'll send me to another man like him!" The caped figure regarded him coldly, similar to the way Mandalorians would look at him in the future. Ezra would be on his hands and knees begging if he weren't so scared of this strange man who had carried him up onto a fifty foot rock in the middle of nowhere, and threatened to throw him off if he wasn't honest.

"Then at least tell me about this government, then I'll consider it." The man said, and Ezra told him everything he knew about the Empire, which wasn't much, aside from what the Emperor would always claim on the Holonet, "If you don't know," The man said, "Maybe he does." Looking down into the dark corner. The man brought Ezra back down to ground level with him, and pulled the semi-awake Inquisitor from the dark.

He seized him by the shoulders and got in his face, making the Inquisitor wake up fully, "I want you to tell me everything you know about whatever division you work with in the Imperial government, you hear me?" The Inquisitor kept quiet, he looked terrified, but stayed silent, "DO YOU HERE ME?!" The man yelled again.

"I'll never talk to you, you evil piece of- what in the name of the force?" The Inquisitor trailed off as part of his arm started to turn to dust, as it floated away in the air. Slowly his entire body began to crumbled to dust, as the wind took it away, and soon the man was only holding air as the entire being turned to dust and floated away.

The man looked around, "What the hell?" The only sound that could be heard was blowing of the wind, and the rustling of the grass. A week later the Empire released a statement claiming it was a plague that killed over half the population on the planet, "We need to get out of here." The man grabbed Ezra's hand and led him off into the fields.

"Where are we going?" Ezra asked the strange man.

"You want to be safe from those monsters?" He asked back.

"You're going to keep me safe?" Ezra asked, hopefully.

"No, I'm going to teach you," The man said, turning back to Ezra, "I'm going to teach you how to fight them, to stand up to them and protect yourself and everyone else from getting hurt again."

"Will I come back?"

"Do you want to?"

"Yes."

"Then you will, when the time is right," The man said, leading Ezra back into the field, "But as of right now, there are some people I'd like you to meet."

"I don't even know your name." Ezra pointed out.

"What's yours?" The man asked.

Ezra was hesitant at first to answer that, knowing what other people had done with his name, but this man saved his life, the least he could do was give him a name, "Ezra," He stated, "Ezra Bridger."

The man rose from the crouching position he had taken to meet Ezra's eyes, and the words that came next were the words that would change millions of lives, and some of those were the people Ezra would grow to care about, "I'm Batman." The man then continued walking in the direction he had came from, those words were also something for Ezra and a few select others to tease the masked hero about, but it was the beginning of Ezra Bridger's other life, his other name. And there were few others he would entrust with the lives of his friends, but now, floating through space in the middle of force knows where with Thrawn, he was calling out to the Batman from across the cosmos, from a different universe, to come and protect those who he loved most.

Hera.

Zeb.

Ryder.

Rex.

Sabine.

And as he floated toward his destination, he could feel Bruce accept his request as his presence entered the galaxy where Ezra grew up, where his friends were. And he had a knew reassurance that they would be safe in his absence, under the watchful eye of a hero they didn't know was there, a silent guardian, a watchful protector.

A Dark Knight.

* * *

 **LOTHAL, ONE DAY LATER**

The crew of the Ghost loaded cargo onto the ship, as Hera and Zeb prepared to leave for Yavin 4, Sabine gave them a final farewell hug, and promised them she would keep in touch.

"Ezra said he was counting on me, to make his planet safe, and to protect while he was gone." The young Mandalorian said, as she watched Captain Syndulla's face change.

"And there's no other reason?" Hera asked, raising her eyebrows playfully, "There's no other reason why you would stay here and keep all of this the way it is now? At peace, _exactly_ the way _Ezra_ wanted?"

Sabine blushed a little, but her smile wavered a little, "Goodbye, Hera."

The Captain of the Ghost pulled the Mandalorian into a hug, "You stay safe, you hear?" Her voice cracked a little, "I've lost to many of my family here, I don't want to lose anymore."

"You won't lose me," Sabine promised her, "I give you my word."

Hera pulled away and nodded, as she and Zeb boarded the Ghost, followed by Chopper, as the ship took off and flew into the horizon. Sabine looked down at her feet as the ship flew off, and wiped away a few tears at her family being separated, for good this time. She turned and walked away, toward Ezra's tower, but she felt eyes on her, not the kind that admired any particular feature of her's, but someone keeping watch to be sure she was okay.

 _Guardian angels,_ She thought, _Thanks, Ezra_

She chuckled at the thought and dismissed it, but as she made her way to her tower, she didn't see that on a skyscraper above, a dark figure stood by watching, silent as always, but never unfocused. His cape flapped in the wind as he looked over Lothal as night began to fall. His dark form contrasting from the orange sky as he watched Sabine move toward Ezra's old tower. He owed Ezra his life, and now the young boy he had trained had grown up, started a new life, but because of this feeling that he supposedly had, that there would only be more death and destruction in his absence, he needed the Batman too keep his friends, and in many ways the entire galaxy safe.

He had arrived here using Barry's interdimensional treadmill, which the speedster would use to send people into other universes and timelines. And he put Nightwing in charge of Gotham until he returned. As Sabine entered the tower's elevator, he knew she had found a home. But he would keep track of her, Zeb, and Hera. If a problem arose that threatened them to an extent that they wouldn't get out of without help, he would be there, he owned Ezra that much. And after this war with the Empire was over, he would find Ezra. If Sabine didn't beat him to it.

Although, while he was here, he couldn't help but spot crimes, the average type, like muggings, thefts, even some murders. Those that went unsolved or unnoticed by the police or Sabine herself, he would address himself, and after a while, as they had when he had first started, rumors of a bat creature started to circulate. The police, government, and lawyers dismissed them as just hoaxes.

However, there still were somethings that even Bruce worried about. He had done some digging into the plague that the Empire had claimed taken over half the people on Lothal, the one that had clearly been a cover-up for something else entirely, the cover-up of what actually happened to that Inquisitor all those years ago. When he infiltrated the Imperial Archives on Coruscant, he had found that there was no known reason for what happened to those people, other than that they turned to dust within seconds, and gone just as fast. But there was a star chart, one that mapped everything known about the space outside of the universe where the Jedi once lived. Apparently the disappearance was caused by a massive surge of power on one "World 616".

After he'd returned to Lothal, a ceremony for the liberation of Lothal was held, the remaining crew members of the Ghost were there, even the droid known as Chopper. But the ceremony was also held to honor the two who'd given their lives in the battle for the planet, Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger. Bruce listened in on the ceremony via the earpiece in his cowl, it went very well, and was similar to the ceremony that was held back on Earth when the Justice League was formed. The Batman himself, the most stoic person on his entire world perhaps, even caught himself smiling as the heroes were thanked by every grateful citizen. It only went sour when they called the names of the dead... and Ezra Bridger was among them.

It was hard enough for Bruce to hear that name called. He had only lost an ally once, he wasn't going to make that mistake again. Sabine Wren however, was much more vocal in her thoughts. The Mandalorian stepped out of the line that was formed by Garazeb Orrelios, Hera Syndulla, and former clone trooper, Rex, "What did you just kriffing say?" Batman smirked a little, he'd never met a Mandalorian, but he was getting a good sense of what they were like from this girl, and then the speaker thought it was a good idea to tell her she was disrespecting Ezra's passing by interrupting.

Bruce watched watched Captain Syndulla purse her lips just before the young Mandalorian threw punch that made impact right in the middle of the speaker's nose. He could almost _hear_ the cartilage snap. Miss Wren proceeded to yell insult in a different dialect, likely Mandalorian, at the speaker until security pulled her away, however the other rebels did nothing, they just stared straight ahead. Safe from the big purple creature, he stared right at the speaker looking like he was about to do the same thing. The thought had crossed the Dark Knight's mind that maybe he should intervene, but that wasn't why he was here. He was only in this galaxy to keep a watchful eye on the rest of the Ghost crew, as per Ezra's request, especially Sabine, he suspected it was because there was a connection between his former student and Sabine Wren. One he would do his best to conserve- as in, not let the former be permanently harmed or killed.

Interestingly enough, the con artist wasn't charged with any accounts of assault, as the victim had accused her of. That could be for multiple reasons, the most likely one being that she was a key part in the liberation of Lothal. In the time Bruce spent on Lothal he saw Sabine do three things, paint, work with the new government to improve Lothal, and beat the living hell out of anyone who threatened the people who lived on the planet. However, he was almost one hundred percent sure that Ezra didn't mean for her to stay and protect Lothal when he said he was counting on her, but he didn't have the heart to tell her that, and he almost didn't have the guts.

About a year after Ezra's disappearance, he had set up a base of operations in a cave system that went from under a rock field and below the capitol city. It was perfect, he stole a bit of equipment from Imperial shuttles, radios, radars, holomaps, everything he needed to keep an eye on the galaxy. But no sooner was he tapping into transmissions mentioning a super-weapon capable of destroying planets. He left Lothal on the Batwing, which had been outfitted with life support for space and the best technology STAR labs and Lucius Fox had to offer. The Dark Knight had left to gain intel about the super weapon, so he headed for Sullust, the center of weapon manufacturing for the Empire's Stormtrooper divisions. But there was an unexpected factor there as well, and when he entered the atmosphere of the planet, he didn't find Star Destroyers or TIE fighters waiting for him, which wouldn't have been a problem for him.

What he encountered was much, _much_ worse- Hera Syndulla.

* * *

 **Okay, I've been gone for a while now. Some people may have read the original versions of this story, which are currently still up, under Star Wars Rebels/Batman crossover, but I decided to do a rewrite. I wasn't proud of it at the time, but this I think will be much better. And keep in mind this is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, so I'm going to bend the cannon a little, no major events will be affected. This will be a more detailed story than the first, and this chapter was a prologue, it was establishing why Batman was there, and what he had been doing. The next few will have more action, dialogue, and will deal with Ezra's disappearance more. Please write a review and let me know if you enjoyed or not, it helps me to know what you liked and what you didn't like.**


	2. Here's My Card

**Three Earth months after the battle of Lothal**

* * *

Hera didn't know what she expected to find on Geonosis, but this certaintly wasn't it. When she returned to Yavin, she was immediately called to high command for a special assignment. She had entered the command center to find Mon Mothma, General Doddona, and a holographic projection of Bail Organa. The posts that the radio operators, strategists, and coordinators usually operated were empty, they were the only ones there.

"Captain Syndulla," Bail Organa greeted, as Hera nodded her head in acknowledgement, "We apologize for calling you here, on such short notice, and especially after your losses on Lothal." The Twi'lek's expression changed a little, Kanan was the love of her life, she couldn't deny that now, after she had realized her mistake and tried to correct it by telling him, but she was far to late. And Ezra was the son she never had, after she heard him in the turret speaking to his parents about how much his new family meant to him, the thought of losing him was weighing down on her and pushed Kanan out of her mind for a time.

Ezra had taught her much before he disappeared, and much of it she would use in the future, and definitely with the new life force that was coming into the world. But every now and then she would see a side of Ezra she hadn't before, like he wasn't as open as he often was, specifically regarding his past. Hera knew he was hiding something from them, but she was willing to overlook it if pressing him about it caused him pain.

"It's quite alright," She replied, pushing the thoughts away, "Where's the rest of command?" The computers were still on, and the buttons and switches were still blinking like they had just left, and the star charts were still tracking rebel freighters and convoys through the galaxy. Mon Mothma's face changed as it always did when she was worried, from a warm smile to a worrying grim face.

"This is on a need to know basis only, and the news we have here is deeply unsettling," Hera knew that if Mon Mothma was worried, everyone in the alliance should be too, "One of our convoys was sent to investigate something on Geonosis, they had just arrived in the atmosphere when they noticed an object flying within their vicinity," Hera pictured the scene as Mothma described it, "They had said it was making a turn toward them when their comms went offline," When the comm system went offline it was always a jammer, "One of the pilots managed to get a message through to us, they had said they'd been breached, when we asked if it was the Empire, they said they had no idea what it was." Hera raised her eyebrows in surprise, "They took out twenty well armed troops."

Hera's brow furrowed, "It was a large convoy, the pilot described the attackers as demons, said the power to the ship was cut, and his crew started disappearing into the dark," Dodonna explained, "These were his last few words to us before the message was shut off." He pressed a button on his side of the command table, and the audio message played.

 _"It's taking my men into the dark, and then disappearing just as fast! I need immediate backup, we're going to crash!"_ The screams and cries of the soldiers and crew members could be heard in the distance, along with the occasional blaster fire, _"Help me, plea- oh no, no, no, it's here!"_ The voice of the pilot moved away as the _swish_ of the door to the cockpit sounded, _"No, please! Stay away from me! Stay away!"_ A blaster fired three shots, before the screams of pilot were muffled, and then silenced, along with crack of a fist against a skull. Then the transmission shut off.

Hera's eyes were wide, and staring into nothingness as Mon Mothma spoke again, "As I said, unsettling," That was an understatement, "I want you to investigate, a squad of the best fighters in the rebellion will meet you there. "Should you choose to accept." Hera thought about turning down the mission given to her, but there was a lot of things riding on this, and she was in no position to die or be seriously injured.

"Do we have any possible ID on the attackers?" Hera asked, "Mandalorian, Inquisitor, kriff, even Vader?" Bail shook his head, she had just named the best warriors in the galaxy and it wasn't any of them? There was clearly a new player in the game now.

"From the little footage we have whatever attacked them is, they prefer to strike from the darkness, stop an opponent in his or her tracks," Dodonna explained to her, "And your friend Fenn Rau said they don't fight at all like a Mandalorian. He said their movements from shadow to shadow weren't physically possible, at least not to his knowledge. But there is a pattern. If we can drag them out of the darkness, into the light, we can see what they look like, get an idea of how to beat them."

That did sound like a reasonable plan to Hera, and this mattered, if there were indeed characters moving silently through the shadows, it was a threat to this alliance. She needed to find out who's side these people were on, before the Empire does it first.

"When do I extract?"

* * *

 **Geonosis,**

Hera stepped down the ramp of the Ghost and out onto the orange rock of the Geonosian earth. The sky was clearly once blue, but it had been corrupt by decades of war and pollution, making it a foggy orange color. She was immediately greeted by four troops in varying types of armor sitting around a campfire, with the crashed transport ship behind them.

They stood at attention the moment the captain set foot onto the dusty rock, "Hello, Captain Syndulla," One with heavy armor and a TL-50 said, "Headquarters told us you were coming." Hera nodded in his direction, but she was looking in the direction of the shipwreck.

"Have any of you gone inside?" Hera asked, as she watched the expressions on the soldiers' faces change from confidence to fear. As if on cue, the light of the sun began to fade, as the night closed in.

"Negative," One with a hood and a sniper rifle said, "That thing that killed those men is believed to still be in there." He jerked his thumb behind him, toward the ship. When Hera looked closer, the damage to the ship was severe, but it appeared as though it was inflicted from the inside, with surgical precision rather than brute force.

"I'm going in to have a look." Hera said, calling Chopper to her side. The troops however, had worried expressions on their faces.

"I wouldn't go in alone ma'am," The heavy trooper said, "We are assigned to accompany you, and-"

"I know how to use a blaster sergeant," Hera snapped, walking past him, "I can handle myself. I don't need an elite fireteam or Jedi to defend me." Her hand rested on her blaster, just in case the troop would try to stop her. He didn't so she proceeded into the ship. The ramp hung open, revealing the red glow of the emergency power. Sparks flew down from the ceiling pipes.

"Scan for life." Hera instructed Chopper, his antenna came out of his top, and started the scan. With a surprised beep he projected the results to the captain of the Ghost; _No losses._ "What?" She said to herself, but when she looked at the bodies of the soldiers again, they clearly were breathing, but they had injuries of all kinds. Most were from a brunt object slamming into them, probably a fist.

"Anyone awake?" She asked her droid, the antenna spun a little more and then locked on to something, as Chopper beeped excitedly and skidded across the metal floor. Hera rolled her eyes and ran after the astromech, stepping over bodies as she went. Eventually Chopper entered the door to the bridge, and rolled up to a soldier that was stirring, groaning in pain, but only semi-awake. Hera nodded at her droid, as he pulled out his taser and shocked the trooper, and he let out a screech. His eyes fluttered open, he gasped for air, and then clutched his side in pain.

"What happened?" Hera asked, sounding soothing and calm, but she was desperate for information.

The trooper gulped, "It came out of nowhere," His voice was terrified, "Something slammed into us, and then our reactor went offline, and our soldiers started disappearing one by one." He was reliving the moments in his head, she understood. It happened to her countless times after Kanan died.

"Tell me what they looked like." Hera said.

The soldier shook his head, "Not they, _him,_ " Hera's eyes widened, "It's one man." She stared at him, in disbelief, one man couldn't scare the hell out of the best troops in the alliance. One man couldn't take down an entire ship, but from how it sounded, it explained a lot.

"Did he say anything?" Hera asked, "Did he ask you anything?"

The soldier nodded quickly, "He asked the pilot about their mission, he said we were investigating reports about an Imperial super-weapon, then he smashed his head against the console and left, right after the captain told him we were going to Sullust."

"Sullust?" Hera asked, but if the Empire had a super-weapon, Sullust was the place to go looking for intel, "Stay here, I'll send for a medic." The soldier nodded, as Hera got up and left, when she got back to the Ghost, she punched in the coordinates for the lava planet. It was time for her to pay a visit to this mystery man herself.

* * *

 **Sullust**

 _Twenty minutes,_ Hera thought to herself as she monitored the atmosphere, waiting for something to enter it, _Twenty minutes without a trace._ She'd gotten in a lot of time to think, about why she was doing this, specifically. This was definitely a mystery that needed solving, but why did she have to be selected to do it? She was not in any position to be hurt or seriously injured. But then again, there weren't many others who were qualified to do this. And if anyone could find a way to expose this person, by the force, she was going to find it.

A bleep on the nav computer snapped the Twi'lek out of her thoughts as her head snapped over to the screen. A craft of unknown origin and design had just entered the system, and it wasn't too far away, maybe four or five klicks. It was too close to make a jump, but Hera diverted all power into her engines and zoomed off with the Ghost toward the ship's position.

"Chopper, open a comm channel," Hera shouted to the astromech, who only made a few grumpy noises before a new channel appeared on the Ghost's monitors, "Let's try talking first for once." When she was inside the planet's atmosphere, the beautiful sky and clouds were only flawed by the sulfurous ground and magma below. She approached a canyon as she neared the position of the ship, it was so large that the tops of the canyon were above the clouds.

Then she saw it. A dark, sleek craft with barely visible engine glows weaved through the rocks, making almost no sound other than a small hum of the engines. It's design was like nothing she'd ever seen, but it was definitely built for stealth. There were no weapons on it, at least none she could detect, and it had no shields, which was strange. It also was a very flat ship, it could get through tight spaces very easily. But the ship itself wasn't the concern, it was it's pilot.

"Attention, craft," Hera announced in the authoritative voice she always used, "This is Hera Syndulla of the Rebel Alliance, identify yourself," She kept her hands on the controls, ready to engage in combat at any moment. She waited for an answer, but none came, the ship continued to fly through the canyon, "If you do not respond I will open fire, on grounds of your suspected involvement in the crashed convoy on Geonosis."

She listened, until the hum of another comm system came through, and a voice spoke to her, "I know who you are." A gruff voice said, it would have been intimidating to some, less skilled and experienced members of the Alliance, but not to Hera Syndulla.

"Then you know why I'm here," Hera said, keeping her confidence in her voice, "You crashed a convoy carrying a significant number of soldiers, weapons, and explosives, all while evading line of sight from anything, even cameras." Despite the fact he needed to answer to the Alliance, and he was probably thinking of a way to do the same thing to her that he did to that convoy, Hera would love to have someone like this guy on their side of the fight.

"It was simple," The voice said plainly, as if not really taking her remarks seriously, "And I mean I know _everything_ about who you are." Hera raised her eyebrows, that was not something that she liked hearing, and if this guy was everything that soldier said he was, then it was plausible he did know everything about her.

"Here's what's going to happen," Hera snapped, "You're going to come with me, surrender all information you have, and answer to the Rebel Alliance for your acts." She had said that in the most determined voice she had, which most of the Empire knew was not a good sign, and it would do this guy well to just play along.

The response was not an answer, "You're going to leave this system," He growled, literally, _growled_ , "You're going to report back to your superiors and tell them that it was an Imperial TIE squadron that took out that convoy, and forget about everything you heard about here. Including Sabine Wren and Garazeb Orrelios."

 _This guy_ , "Alright listen up," She replied back as she followed the ship through the canyon, "I've been through a lot, lost a lot, in the past few months, so-"

"Like losing Kanan Jarrus?" The voice said back. _That_ pushed her big red button, "And Ezra Bridger? Well boo-hoo, it happens." She didn't care about how he knew about them, she didn't care about her mission, she just cared about seeing this guy be blasted into the ground.

"And you just crossed over the line." Hera snarled as she diverted power back to the weapons systems and smashed her thumbs against the buttons. The targeting system appeared on her screen, but there was nothing there. The ship had some impressive technology. She pushed the targeting system out of the way, and started firing manually at the ship. Long, powerful streaks of red lit the air as the ship dodged each one. The vehicle swung left around another rock as Hera followed suit, but that ship was faster, and the pilot knew what he was doing.

The ship turned right, but right when Hera followed, the pilot deployed flares, but these, instead of throwing off missiles, exploded into concussion grenades, blinding her for a moment. There was ringing in her ears as she felt the Ghost tip down, and it made impacted with the ground, scraping up rock and gravel. Hera switched power to the reverse thrusters, making the ship lurch roughly, with the crashing of objects, probably including Chopper, banging against the walls of the ship. She felt the Ghost jerk to a stop, and for brief moment felt relief, before her head slammed into the console from the sudden stop, and the last thing she remembered before she blacked out was the other ship flying over head.

* * *

 **Capital Ship Bravo, In Mandalorian Air Space**

Tarkin knew that with Thrawn gone, the Mandalorian front was almost entirely lost, there was no regaining control of the planet without his strategic mind and force. He walked into the meeting room with the swish of the door behind him, and saw a large round table pack with some of the greatest military minds in the Empire, but none of them were as good as the grand admiral.

"Gentleman," Tarkin greeted as he activated the lock on the door, and moved to take his seat, "Thank you for arriving at such short notice, but the Mandalorian resistance is growing stronger and stronger each day, and with Grand Admiral Thrawn out of the picture-"

"You need our help to pick up the pieces," Admiral Vallire said with the shake of his head, as the other members of the board nodded in agreement, "Listen, this is Mandalore we're talking about here, you don't send in a bunch of Destroyers a be done with it, they went toe-to-toe with the Jedi Order and nearly won, we need to think about this. There aren't any more Thrawns out there."

"I may have a solution," The governor of the system said, making all the heads in the room turn to him, "We can't continue to attempt to take strategic positions, that isn't working, we need to stop hitting bases, and start hitting people."

Tarkin raised an eyebrow, "You have my attention." He said, as all heads in the room turned toward the governor.

"If we make a example of an important figure in the revolution, it could lower morale, make some afraid and others ridden with guilt," He was suggesting an attack on the chain of command, "We needed to send in a special forces group to preform a hit on this leader, kill them quickly, then escape like they were never there."

Tarkin slowly nodded his head in agreement, this could work, they just needed to find the right target, "Who do you suggest?"

The governor shifted in his seat a little, "Bo-Katan would be ideal, and if we could make her death public quickly, and retrieve the darksaber from her, but I don't think we could get to her with the amount of security she's got guarding her."

"I know a group that can do it, that's not the problem," Tarkin said, "The problem is the ramifications it may have, her allies in surrounding clans may react with force rather than fear. It may also make the Empire's Mandalorians leave due to our lack of honor."

"What does honor have to do with it?" The governor asked, "We just need to kill Bo-Katan and make it clear that all of the leaders of Mandalore are now a target, and they'll crumble before us. And as for the Mandalorians in the Empire, we-"

Just as he finished speaking, the door behind Tarkin swished open. He whirled around and put a hand on his stinger pistol as a figure stood in the door way, he had a purple suit on, with green hair and a pure white face, with green eyes that almost glowed in the dark area he stood in, but the most obvious and terrifying feature on him, was the large grin on his face, "And here I was thinking," He stepped into the light, with his eyes dilating, with something crazed dancing behind them, "That my jokes were bad."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't call security right now." Admiral Vallire shouted from the back, his finger on the button. The figure took a seat where Tarkin was supposed to sit, adjusting his suit a little.

"Listen I uh, I heard this idiot's so called plan, and I couldn't help but point out the flaws in it to, uh, you all," The governor was about to speak when the figure shushed him, "Listen, I know why you prefer to stay out of the public eye on Mandalore. I know why you like to have your, _ahem_ , group therapy session way above the clouds," The room went silent, all knowing what he was about to say, "Clan Wren. See Clan Wren has shown Mandalore your true colors, unfortunately. And Mandalore will show now mercy if you kill, uh, little Bo Peep. They'll find you, and make you bleed."

"What do you propose?" Tarkin asked, as the man looked up at him.

"It simple, we kill it's leadership." He answered, "Let's wind the clocks back a year, all these clans and there leaders wouldn't dare cross any of you. I mean, what happened, your balls drop off? We need to take care of the real problem here."

There was agreement throughout the entire room, "How much do you want?" Tarkin asked, seeing through the true motives of this man.

"Ya see, it's not how _much_ I want. It's about _what_ I want," He said, as the council shifted uncomfortably, noting the change in the atmosphere around them, "I want full control over the forces planet-side, and I want you all to trust me in everything I do, and I can garuntee results." The entire room laughed in ridicule. But Tarkin stayed silent, he could read off of this man he had a tendency to break people, and that was their goal on Mandalore, he was also very intelligent, but there was an extreme amount of madness within him, so would he sacrifice sanity for an intelligent commander? Possibly.

"Grand Moff?" Admiral Vallire asked, as Tarkin looked up from the ground, "Are you really considering this?" There was fear in his voice, but Tarkin had already made up his mind.

"No." Tarkin said as he pulled out his pistol and was about to pull the trigger, but the man simply held up a detonater, which could only mean one thing. The man got up out of his chair, and reached into his pocket.

"Alright, let me know when you want to start taking things a little more seriously," He pulled out a playing card of some sort, and placed it on the table, "Here's my card." The man then ran off out the door and closed it behind him. Vallire pressed the button that let the Garrison know there was an intruder. Tarkin picked up the card, it had a picture of a clown and read one word...

 _Joker_ .

* * *

 **Okay, sorry it took so long, but as you can see this chapter is significantly longer than the last. The Joker's monologue is taken and edited from "The Dark Knight". Please write a review, they always help.**


	3. Man Of My Word

**Mandalore, 23:00**

"Why am I here mother?" Sabine asked, irritated as she walked into the throne room of Clan Wren. It hadn't changed much, still the boring gray walls and the Mandalorian guards staring into space. The snow outside had melted slightly, since the warmer part of the cycle had begun, but it was warmer by only a few degrees, meaning it went from ten degrees to twelve.

Her mother wasn't in the best mood to begin with, even by her standards, and that was a little concerning, especially because anger is what she uses to cover her real emotions, "Quiet, Sabine," Ursa put her palm out behind her to silence Sabine as Alrich walked into the room, his eyebrows furrowed and eyes red, which made Sabine even more concerned, "Anything?"

Alrich shook his head slowly, something's happened, "Okay, what's going on?" Sabine shouted, she was getting anxious. Had something happened to Mandalore, to her clan? Or had Bo-Katan been killed? Those were all horrifying events that could have played out, but nothing of that sort could make her mother worry, and her father cry. It would have to be something personal something life changing, something- wait... "Where's Tristan?"

Ursa's head went down, and Alrich inhaled sharply. ' _No, don't say it,'_ Ursa looked at her daughter, with pain and sorrow in her eyes, just behind her cold, merciless shell, "He's been taken." Sabine's muscles tensed just as the words came out of her mother's mouth. Tristan wasn't a child anymore, he was a grown adult. And a strong one at that. He was more than capable of defending himself, how could he have been taken?

"By who?" Sabine asked, after a moment. Her brother had been kidnapped, she was angry, worried, scared, all kinds of emotions were poured into a melting pot, "Who took my brother?" The guards looked at each other, then at her, as Ursa's face changed.

"Walk with me, Sabine," She said, and grabbed Sabine's hand, which she didn't do often. She had to be taking this hard, blaming herself for what had happened. Not being there to stop it, "Twenty two hours ago we received an encrypted transmission from somewhere on Mandalore. It was a recorded video from someone new." There was a tone in her mother's voice Sabine hadn't ever heard before, almost like... fear.

"This is top secret information, only your mother, I, and Rau know of this," said Alrich, the same tone in his voice. They entered the hallway outside of the throne room and headed toward the comm center, where all transmissions were recorded, "The kidnapper is someone we've never seen before, and it's unlikely he's with the Empire." They turned into the communication room, blue light from the computers was the only source of illumination in the room.

"Why wouldn't he be with the Empire?" Sabine asked, as her mother powered up the computer, "And how can you tell?" A moment later a video file appeared on the screen. It showed nothing on the thumbnail, until her mother pressed the play button.

 _As soon as the video started Tristan appeared, tied to a chair with his hands bound to it. His face battered and bloodied, with his helmet on the ground next to him, cracked right down the middle. He appeared to be in a warehouse of sorts, with old and cracked tile, and very little light except for the orange light coming through the rectagular windows. The video was very low quality, the image was blurry and the frame rate was very low._

 _"Tell them your name." A twisted and demented voice came from behind the camera. The voice was light and quiet, but there was still something else lurking behind it's gentle sound._

 _Tristan looked up to the camera, despite his injured state, "Tristan Wren."_

 _The voice giggled behind the camera, but not in a delightful sort of way. It was a laugh that a madman would have, and the Empire didn't work with nutcases, "Are you Mandalorian of House Kryze?" It was a question that sounded like he already knew the answer._

 _"No."_

 _"No?" The voice asked, cackling, "Then why do you dress up like one?" The man picked up Tristan's helmet and shook it at him, laughing hysterically, before throwing it aside, the sound of it shattering could be heard in the corner, "Look at me," He yelled, "LOOK AT ME!"_

 _Tristan raised his head at the camera, as he faced the man. The camera turned around quickly, showing the face of the man who was questioning Tristan. His face was pure white, his hair was dark green, and a large red smile plastered on his face, "See this is how crazy the Wrens have made Mandalore! Ursa Wren must turn herself in." He smirked with some kind of strange delight he got from this, "Oh, and everyday she doesn't people will die. Starting tonight. I'm a man of my word. AHEHAHAHAHA." With that final note, the camera spun out of the way as Tristan's screams were heard in the background._

When the video ended Sabine found herself wide eyed and her hand over her mouth. Ursa turned around towards Sabine again, her eyes grave and sad. Alrich's hand found it's way to her shoulder, "Does that sound like an Imperial to you?" Ursa asked.

"I-" Sabine fumbled over her words, in complete shock, "Who was that?" She was never going to get that image out of her head. The maniacal laughter, the pale white skin, the blood red grin, Tristan tied to a chair bloody and worn. It was the stuff of demons.

"Like we said, we aren't sure." Alrich answered, guilt plastered over his face. Someone had taken Tristan Wren, and that was not something to be taken lightly.

Sabine stared and her parents, "Well then where's Tristan?" She asked, outraged. There had to be some kind of evidence pointing to their location, there had to be a search party scouring every nook and cranny of both Mandalore and Krownest. Right? "Someone has to know where he is!"

Her mother shook her head, "There was no indication of where their location was in the video, and the scan we ran of the capital city came up with nothing," The very thought of Tristan being taken away from Krownest to a different system was terrifying to her, there was no way they could find just two people in a galaxy as large as this one, "Sabine, we're not even sure if your brother is still alive."

That took the air out of her lungs, "How can you say that?" She shouted, these were her parent, they were supposed to give her hope, not diminish it, "I know he's still out there!"

"Listen, ad'ika, we don't mean to discourage you, but this is a serious family matter, we can't make guesses based on hope." Her father said.

Sabine walked to the large glass window, "I'm not guessing, father," She said, calmly, knowing Tristan was still out there, "He is alive, I know it. Because I know him, we grew up together, fought together. He _is_ alive." She looked to the forests, suddenly knowing where to look and- _BAM!_

A body that's neck was tied in a noose falls against the glass suddenly, startling her as she tripped over herself in sudden fear. She hit the ground on her back, just as she heard her mother scream. She sat up to see her mother being held in Alrich's arms as she sobbed and screamed, Alrich was staring at the window, and when she looked at the window again...

She saw Tristan.

She saw Tristan's body hanging from a noose, covered in white makeup, and a blood red smile. Just like the man on the video.

* * *

 **Sorry for the sudden dark turn, but those who have seen The Dark Knight probably saw that coming, and this is going to be a story that has consequences, and it isn't for those who are looking for a black-and-white, good-triumphs story. And for the record, Tristan is DEAD. Permanently DEAD. No revival crap in this story. Anyway, don't worry, I'll go back to Batman and Hera in the next chapter, and I will also explain how the Joker got in the Star Wars galaxy in the first place in a later chapter. Please review, I'll get back to you soon!**


	4. Stranded

**22:00, Sullust**

Hera's eyes opened with a throbbing pain in her skull, and her sight was met with darkness, so much darkness that she wasn't sure she'd even opened her eyes at all. With a grunt she sat herself up, blinking away dust and rock, and felt around on the ground. Where was she? What happened? Then it all began to come back to her, the crash, the man in the ship.

"Pyro, search the cargo bay, I've got the cockpit." A faint voice came echoing through the ship's corridors, and bright beams of light began to shine in the window of the ship. She shook off her confusion and got to her feet, sparks flying everywhere. The twi'lek felt around her pockets, her blaster was gone. The crash must've knocked it out of it's holster. She growled and looked around, but doors began to bang and clatter, as if they were being broken down. They must be Imperials, they had to be. Hera rushed to the door and pressed the emergency release, and the door quietly swished open.

When the door opened the hallway appeared to be empty, no lights illuminated the area. _Covert ops then,_ Hera guessed, _Figures._ The pilot crouched and slowly stepped toward the cargo bay, but footsteps from Ezra's dorm stopped her, and she rushed toward a crate that had been laying in the hallway, probably gotten there from the crash. The door opened as a stormtrooper stepped out, but this one had very different armor than the usual ones. The trooper was wearing very scary looking gauntlets, the kind you wouldn't want to be hit by. He also bore a strange symbol that looked like some kind of demon, and his helmet looked far more advanced than what was often seen, and he was carrying a jet black rifle she'd never seen before, "Nothing?" A voice from the cargo bay shouted.

"Nope," The trooper yelled back, "But I did find something you should see." He had something in his hand, something silver. Hera peered around the crate she was behind, and saw a lightsaber. Ezra's lightsaber. Sabine had left it in there while she went to Mandalore to see her mother, if it was lost-

No. No she had to get it back. Losing it was not an option. The trooper turned behind him just as Hera pressed her back up against the crate, as the light on his rifle shone down the hallway, before moving away again. The trooper began to walk toward the cargo bay just as Hera stood up again, and pulled out a baton from her belt. She quietly took two steps toward him, then two more, and then three, until she was close enough to take a swing at him. She raised the baton and swung down, hitting him in the back of the head, feeling a sense of victory as he fell to the ground, but it was destroyed quickly when he let out a shout in pain.

"Nomad?" The other voice asked, to no answer, "NOMAD!" He shouted as an orange light lit up in the cargo hold, "Ghost, Mouse, Nomad may be down, I repeat, possible man down." Hera panicked and yanked Ezra's saber off the knocked out trooper, and pressed the button on the hilt, and a thin green beam lit up the hallway. She held it in front of her with both hands as another trooper stepped into view, all armored up in thin white armor, with a helmet that looked like a gas-mask, a orange light glowed on his chest, and a cable went from his back to some kind of weapon he held in his hands, "Well," He growled, "If it isn't the woman I'm looking for." He laughed out.

"I know how to use this," Hera growled, sort of-kind of lying, "I suggest you stay back." She waved it in front of her to attempt to scare him away, but this was an entirely new breed of troops.

He tilted his head at her, "You mean you've _seen_ it used," The trooper mocked, "You're gonna make a helluva barbeque tonight." She was going to ask what he meant, but he pulled the trigger on his weapon, and fire shot out, a huge, massive beam of flame that torched the floor, ceiling, and walls of the Ghost. He began to approach her as she slowly backed away, the flames slowly getting closer. The heat became more and more radiant, and the metal hilt of the lightsaber became increasingly hotter.

"I'm warning you." She shouted it in a desperate attempt to regain control over the situation.

The trooper just laughed behind to flames, "Yeah whatever lady," He sped up, following her into the cockpit, "This will all be over soo-" The flames stopped suddenly as the troop stood there, frozen, "What the hell is that?" He seemed to be staring behind her, and she followed his gaze, only to see the glass in the window shatter, as something came crashing into her, throwing her to the ground. Suddenly screams erupted from the hallway, as short bursts of flame came over her head, "Stay the hell away!" The trooper screamed, "Stay the fu-" A loud crunch could be heard, as Hera rolled over to see the trooper fly into her, making her fall over again.

"Pyro! Where are yo-" Another voice yelled, just as blaster fire sounded, and crashes and clangs echoed through the ship, just as another trooper, one with a jet pack and blaster pistol fell onto the ground in the cockpit. More bolts of plasma flew over her head as she shoved the trooper off her, and looked into the hallway, but instead was met with a hand grabbing her shoulder, as a trooper in a black cloak dragged her away, as she kicked and punched at him.

"Stop! There's something in the ship!" The trooper told her, but she didn't stop, she only kept trying to free herself, "You know what?" The trooper growled and tossed her away, as a blaster activated. She sat up to be met with the barrel of a sniper rifle at her head, "The Emperor will have to deal with a corpse." The trooper's finger slipped into the trigger, just as a dark shape came rushing out of the dark, cracking the troop across the face, and followed by an uppercut to the chin.

The figure grabbed the troop's throat, and then slammed him into a wall, the helmet practically shattering as he dropped the trooper onto the ground, "Hera Syndulla," The figure spoke, in the same voice as the one on the comm earlier, and he was covered in black armor, with a cape in the form of a bat, and pointed ears that contrasted against the colorful halls of the Ghost, "A mutual friend sends his regards."

* * *

"Ma'am, we have Captain Syndulla's location." Fenn Rau told Ursa Wren, who sat on her throne deep in thought, as she nodded slowly.

"Have a team send a transmission to her that she is needed."

"That's the problem, ma'am. We can't," Ursa looked at him, her eyes bloodshot, and her brow furrowed, "She crashed on Sullust, we don't know if she survived, but intel suggests that the Hunters were deployed within a kilometer of the location." The countess forced half her mind away from the shock that had transpired earlier, the Imperial Hunters were a black ops team that only the Emperor and Darth Vader knew even existed, except of course for Ursa, Fenn Rau, Alrich, and their source. If they were there, that meant trouble. Serious trouble.

"Send a fire team," Ursa ordered, "And I want you to accompany them."

Fenn Rau bowed his head, "Yes, ma'am," He began to walk away, but stopped for a moment, "The rumors about Tristan," He said, as Ursa's eyes moved away from him, "Is he..." Ursa sat silently for a moment, and then slowly nodded, squeezing her eyes shut as tears began to shove themselves into her eyes, "I- I'm sorry." He proceeded to leave, and when he was gone, Ursa Wren put her head in her hands, and quietly sobbed.

* * *

 **03:00, Sullust**

"You mean to tell me," Hera said as the person who called himself "Batman" finished his story, "That you saved Ezra from an Inquisitor at an early age, trained him to be a "creature of the night" and then he was sent back to this galaxy, and he never told us about it, and Kanan never knew?"

"No, he probably did," Batman said, "And he also likely understood why Batw- Ezra kept it a secret." He picked at the controls to the Ghost, opening the computer and rewiring the circuits, probably sending power to the transmitter to send out a message for help.

Hera was resting her head against the seat as she listened to his story, "You know how crazy you sound, right?" He didn't answer, but it didn't come across as if he had nothing to say, it was as if he wasn't interested in if she believed him or not. It was almost scary.

He finished repairing the terminal and closed the hatch, and he then proceeded to switch to the hyperdrive controls, looking at the monitor, "Hyperdrive's seriously damaged," He kept his solid expression as a cable exploded and shot out sparks at him, which he didn't so much as wince at, "This thing isn't going anywhere anytime soon."

"Yeah, thanks for that," She growled, no answer again. She was joking, he probably knew it too, "Anyone who you could call for help?" He shook his head. Batman had told her that his ship was shot down by a Turbolaser outside a factory.

Hera frowned and clenched her fists, they were stranded, there was no escaping that reality, but just then, Batman's head snapped up, and he looked up at the ceiling, just as something landed on the hull with a _thump_ , "Someone's here," He said, slamming the hatch closed, "Hide." Hera got up and rushed to the cargo bay, where she hid behind a large box as Batman disappeared into the shadows.

The door into the cargo bay was breached as the metal exploded, sending shrapnel everywhere, impacting with the walls. Four figures stepped inside, just as the aimed their blasters at every angle of the room, "Check everywhere, and I do mean everywhere," Hera poked her head out to look, but a light shone in front of her, "You! Hands up!" The voice shouted, as Hera ducked back behind the crate, and blasters activated, "One," The voice counted down, "Two..."

"Three." Batman's voice growled just as he dropped from the ceiling onto the soldiers, his cape folding out in the shape of a bat, and he quickly rushed them, landing ontop of one, and then spinning to evade the fire of another. Hera looked at the scene, taking her focus away from Batman and onto the soldiers, as the Dark Knight cracked his fist onto one of the soldiers, but then Hera noticed their armor.

Mandalorians. Clan Wren Mandalorians.

She shouted for Batman to stop, but the noise was drowned out by the shouts and blaster fire. So she just watched, stunned as the vigilante grabbed one of their weapons, taking it out of their hand and hitting him in the head with it, before throwing it at another, knocking his weapon out of his hands. The Batman quickly rushed to the other three that were left, and taking out a shurikien of some kind and throwing it at two of them, as the projectile separated into two pieces, and went right into both their weapon hands, as he grabbed the other's neck, and throwing him into the wall.

"What the hell are you?!" The soldier yelled as he ran at Batman, jumping up and throwing a powerful kick at the Dark Knight, but he caught it, and twisted, making the Mandalorian scream in pain, as the Batman knelt ontop of him, before bringing his fist down on his helmet, cracking it with the sheer force of the hit. He grabbed the helmet and pulled, splitting it in two, just as another Mandalorian picked up a pipe and hit him on the back, but Batman grabbed the pipe, and snapped it like a twig.

He took the sides of the other's helmet and slammed them on either side of the Mandalorian's head, as he fell to the ground. Batman stood surrounded by the knocked out Mandalorians, throwing the helmet to the side, "We're good." He growled, but Hera just stood in shock.

"Ho- how did you..." She was utterly stunned, "These are _Mandalorians_. The finest warriors in the galaxy, the smartest fighters to ever walk among the stars, and you just..." He shrugged and picked up one of their comms.

"We're getting out of here," Batman looked at one of the Mandos, who was stirring, "One way or the other..."

* * *

 **WOW. It's been a while. Can't entirely promise I'll be getting constant updates, as I've kind of fallen off the Rebels train, but I'm starting to get back on board with it. I've just read Gotham By Gaslight, and it inspired me again. Now, in that book Batman is up against Jack the Ripper, for those of you who don't know who he is, he was a serial killer in London who killed five women, but escaped police capture, and now we still don't know who he was. Gaslight is a pretty dark tale, so there COULD be more loss and chaos from the Joker coming (This does NOT mean gore, don't worry). Those troopers from the beginning were the Hunters in case you didn't pick up on that, there will be more on them later. Also, for everyone who doesn't get why Batman could beat four Mandalorians, I'll tell you why:**

 **He's a badass.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading, and more chapters are coming. Review if you can, as it affects how quickly I update, so more reviews=quicker updates. Also, suggestions are OK, but be sure they aren't anything huge, this is a pretty small scale story. Okay, don't worry I'll leave you alone now, have a good one!**

-MB


	5. Madness

Sabine sat on her bed, sobbing quietly as she held her brother's shattered helmet in her hands, the shards symbolizing a broken warrior. One man, one monster, had managed to break her with a few unsettling words and one horrid murder of someone she loved. Who this man was, she had no idea, his intentions however, couldn't be more clear. He wished to murder her mother as well, someone like him wasn't taking prisoners, that was evident. A few pictures of Tristan were sitting on her shelf, when that body had dropped onto the glass, she remembered her eyes growing wide, and her hopeful spirit sank, and eventually it was gone. Now she was left with nothing in her heart, no happiness, no sadness, just nothingness. She saw a world of evil, and darkness.

A world without color.

The darkness of her room was lit by the moon light, but even that wasn't much comfort. When Tristan's body was recovered, he had multiple wounds on him, but the most frightening thing was the face paint, a smile in blood, that was what the case file was named now. They were trying to find this man. Her mother had barely spoken to anyone during the day, and at night she hid herself in the study, pretending to read in order to mask her grief. Her father went on walks daily, without his personal guard, against everyone's wishes, but he needed nature to handle a loss like this, he always has. Sabine was not any better, she had sent six of the trainers she had to improve her fighting skills to the hospital in her rage, not because they did anything, but because she needed something to vent on.

But there was something Sabine had found that no one else knew of, a datapad had been on her bed when she left the hospital where Tristan was sent, it was open on a chat room, with one other person. She'd picked it up and stared at it. She watched as a message came through:

 **Hello.** The message was simple, blank, but somehow she knew exactly who she was talking to.

 **It's you isn't it?** She had known it was a bad idea to be doing this, but she did so anyway.

 **Aren't you the clever one.** She didn't feel anger though, she felt something else, something worse. Dread.

 **Who are you?**

 **No, no, no. That would ruin the fun.** A terrorist. He must be.

 **Why are you doing this?** She asked, tears threatened her eyes again, speaking to the murderer of her brother was worse than seeing him dead, **Why are you trying to break my family?**

 **To prove a point...** He said, an ominous warning, one that would prove to be so much worse than she anticipated, **Here's to crime.** And then a picture came through, it was a playing card, an old one, it said _Joker._ And then the man left the chat room.

* * *

When the transmission had come through, Ursa was shocked. She'd sent her son away to execute a terrorist that had been a burden on Mandalore for almost a decade at this point, and the last message Tristan sent to her before he went missing was: **It is done.** She'd felt a weight lifted off her shoulders when the message arrived on her comm, and she put the comm down and smiled. This terror leader had killed many Mandalorians, civilians and soldiers alike. And then she waited.

If everything was normal, her son would have returned to Krownest forty-eight hours afterwards, but he didn't. So she contacted him again, no answer. And again, nothing still. It became apparent something was wrong, and she sent a search party out to find him. Instead they found his ship. It was completely without a scratch, nothing was different within it, but Tristan and his crew were gone.

However, there was a smiley face painted on the side of the ship, it had a red mouth and yellow eyes. But it there was something wrong, it wasn't a elegant mural like Sabine's work often was, it was twisted, and frightening, like a maniac had drawn it.

When the search party returned, the transmission came through. The moment she had seen the video clip that was included with the message, she'd known something was horribly wrong, and unfortunately she was proven right. Now she sat on her throne, staring at nothing, watching dust particles float through the air and settle on the floor panels, "Madame?" A voice snapped her out of her thoughts, and a single trooper stood before her, "I am to inform you that the team you sent to Sullust has gone missing," The team? What team? "It seems, judging from their body cameras, something had picked each one of them off one by one, it was not the Hunters." Oh, right _that_ team.

"Understood... leave me, I require a moment alone." The countess replied, causing the soldier to shift uncomfortably, but he nodded.

"Yes, ma'am," He said, turning away from her, "I will inform the others." The soldier exited the room the same way he came, as the door swished behind him. Ursa had been sitting here for almost ten hours now, thinking about the same images over and over again. Her advisor had said that this was a normal symptom of PTSD, but there was something abnormal about it, she had this feeling nagging at her, something horrible, like the fates had their eyes set on one person's life line, ready to cut it at any moment.

* * *

Something was going to happen. It was evident. He could feel it through the force, it was so strong, yet so clouded. Ezra must've been on this planet for at least eighteen months, maybe more. He sat in his hut in the middle of a swampy world, and he listened to all of the signatures echo through the force. He had sensed something happen to Sabine, he had formed a bond with her the day he'd left. He'd never expected it to work, because it required a mutual agreement to form, but she let him in. Probably subconsciously, but that was still something. She had to have felt his signature and recognized it as him, and embraced it.

He had felt everything she'd felt from that point on. Her overwhelming sadness after he'd left, and then the loneliness, and finally the sense of retribution. He never meant for her to wait on Lothal for him, only to stay who she was and keep Hera and Zeb safe, but if that was what she had thought it was, he couldn't interfere even if he wanted to, being some ten thousand light years away and all.

But now he'd felt something else, like the feeling you get when you know something's coming but you don't know what it is in a book, just far more ominous. He could sense Bruce as well, he knew that he was there, with Hera at the moment, how he wished he could see that interaction, but he also sensed _him_. The Joker, the worst thing to have ever happened to his life. He remembered that night at that abandoned carnival. What he'd done to Barbara, Gordon, Bruce. He feared for Sabine as he did for them, because he knew what that maniac had been through, and worst of all, he understood that The Joker was _right_. How come everyone else gets a happy ending but he doesn't? How come he's the one that gets screwed over? All it takes to drive someone mad is one bad day. And right now, Sabine was very vunerable to madness, he could feel it within her.

Madness was a hole no one had ever escaped from, just look at the Joker himself, and you'll see what one really, really bad day can do to someone. He just hoped Sabine wasn't the one who had to fall into it.

* * *

Tarkin watched the live broadcast from the the Mandalorian Holonet, the news agency on the planet was reporting that there were rumors circulating that Tristan Wren, a very high-profile target, had just been murdered. This was striking news, especially to him. The Empire, even under Thrawn, had been tracking the young Mandalorian throughout the galaxy, but he'd always been one step ahead.

And now an image had surfaced of his body on a noose. With clown makeup on.

It was no coincidence that a man with an identical red smile had appeared on their ship about a week ago, claiming he had enough expertise on the clan to take them down. They'd forced him out of the meeting in disgust and ridicule, not expecting to hear from him again. The Grand Moff had knew the clown was smart, but he was a maniac, and madness had no place in this Empire.

He leaned back in his chair and pressed his hand to his face, wiping his brow. His suit was wrinkled and his boots were covered in mud from the field mission he had on Endor this morning, and with meetings constantly popping up during the course of the day, he had no time to clean up. Tarkin sigh to himself and stood up, his boots clanking on the metal floor of his quarters. He walked to the refresher and opened the door, only to be met with a gun pointed at him, and a familiar face staring back at him, with a smile stretching across his ghostly white face.

"Happy Empire Day, tutz." The Joker said, as he pulled the trigger on his gun, making Tarkin wince, but instead of a bullet or plasma beam, a flag came out, " _Bang!_ " The clown said, as something hit Tarkin on the back of the head, and then his vision faded to black.

* * *

 **Okay, fine. Maybe I'm being a little too obvious with what I'm setting up here, especially to any Batman fans out there. But this was fun to write, and I've got a fairly detailed plan ready for what comes next. I probably going to be alternating between Sabine and Clan Wren's POV, and Batman and Hera's POV. The best thing about having someone like The Joker, and people like Alan Moore to draw from, (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) is that you can go in so many directions with him, and tell so many different stories.**

 **Reviews always are helpful, and to know that you guys like the chapters helps me update faster. Until next time!**

-MB


	6. Memories

**When you're done, read the note at the bottom.**

* * *

"Chopper? Hello in there? Anyone home?" Hera shouted at her droid as she banged on his shell, but he didn't budge, "He won't wake up." She said to Batman, who stood behind her in the ship that the Mandalorians had taken to get here. He didn't answer, he only continued working on the ship's navigational systems, which had been locked by the security system. Hera was growing very tired of his incapability to answer her questions, he sort of just stood there like some idiot.

Just as she said this, the ship's nav-computer glowed with life, as sparks flew out of the hatch he was working out of. _Or a genius._ She thought, as Batman slammed the hatch shut and turned to the computer, typing in a few basic commands, probably because it had been reset to it's factory-issue setting, "Shut up." He said to her, briefly turning his head, before going back to the computer.

"I didn't say anything!" Hera shouted, frustrated at their situation.

He shook his head, "You were thinking," He said, which caused her to furrow her eyebrows in confusion, "It was annoying." He continued to mess around with the computer, just as a familiar beep came from behind her. Hera turned her head to see Chopper, who had decided he was going to reactivated at that exact moment apparently.

 _Who's the dipshit?_ Chopper beeped, as Batman turned around, "He's a friend." She told her droid, _Looks like an idiot in that onesie._ Hera laughed out loud as Chopper said this, but the Dark Knight looked very confused.

"What'd he say?" He asked, as Chopper realized he couldn't understand him, so the astromech spewed out a long string of curses, waving his arms around like he was trying to have a legitimate conversation, but he was doing nothing of the sort.

Hera smirked, "He said you're quite scary." _That is NOT what I said._

He looked satisfied, and turned back to the computer, pressing another key, as a holomap of the nearest systems appeared with a blue flash in the center of the room. Hera stood up as Batman stepped up to the map, as a news feed was beeping next to the map. Hera clicked the feed and opened the front page, but it was written entirely in Mandalorian.

"Chopper, translate," Hera ordered, as Chopper's processor buzzed, and the image flickered, before completely switching to basic, " _Face-Painted Terrorist Apprehended By Clan Wren_." She read, as Batman's head snapped away from the map toward her. The captain opened the article, instantly being met with a horrifying face, one with pale skin, a blood red grin plastered on his mouth, and green hair to match his eyes, " _The image above depicts the alleged murderer of Tristan Wren._ " Hera read in shock, that was Sabine's brother.

The Dark Knight looked even more horrified than she did, "He followed me..." He mumbled, his face dropping in fear and dread based on his expression. Hera looked at him strangely, did he know who this man was?

"You know him?" She asked.

The air grew eerily cold, as the Batman stared at the man in the image, who stared back with his demented eyes, "Yes, and I pray you never have to meet him," He moved away from the image, each step he took looked like a struggle for him, "He's barely a man, he has no code, no sense or humanity," Batman sat down in the chair in the cockpit, resting his head on his hand, "I have to talk to him. As soon as possible."

"Whoa there," Hera said, putting her hands up, "You just said he was one of the worst men you've ever seen before, and now you want to go see him?" She was getting the sense that there was a different type of relationship between the Batman and the so-called "Joker" than most other heroes had with their villains.

Batman nodded, "I'm the only one who he'll speak with. That's a known fact," He sat up and turned to the controls, "We need to get there now." He flicked the switches above as the shuttle hummed with life, and the engines roared awake.

* * *

 **2 Hours Earlier, Mandalore**

"I know what you're thinking, it's a scrap yard," Amaru said frantically to the customer, who stood over the run down factory in a purple suit, "But it's got some potential, even though I know you aren't to keen about it." He was all to used to people coming here, and then leaving in disgust.

"Are you kidding?" The customer said incredulously, as Amaru prepared to be lectured about the management of the cleanliness of keeping a park, "I'm crazy about it!" And the man turned his face to him, his skin was tan, and his eyes were blue, he would probably have been handsome if his head wasn't shaped like a triangle.

Amaru looked up, "Y- you are?" The man grinned and twirled his cane in his hands, "I don't get to many people who are interested in a park like this, it's a real honor sir, what's your name mister? I've lost it all of sudden!"

"Oh that's not a problem right now," The man said, descending down the hill they were on, as he walked to the factory. It was an old steel mill, that was abandoned over fifty years ago. It used cars to run iron through the facility, and there were two smokestacks that loomed over the factory grounds, and there were tents and carts that once had refreshments and food for the workers scattered about the area, "I find this place quite funny, it reminds me of..."

The man paused as he walked, his expression changing, as Amaru looked at him nervously, "Reminds you of what?" He asked.

It took a moment for the customer to regain his train of thought, "Oh nothing just..." And he turned away, a dark tone overtaking his words, " _Memories_."

* * *

 _A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..._

 ** _"Oh god..." Joe said, "I can't believe this..." He walked up the creaky wooden steps of his apartment building in the Narrows, as the landlady watched him intently, practically shouting at him mentally for rent. Tears threatened his eyes as he approached his room in shame, he took of his fedora, clutching it in his hands, as he knocked on the door slowly._**

 ** _A woman opened the door, the one he saw everyday of his life, the one who kept him anchored to the Earth, the one who loved him, who he loved, "Joe?" Jeannie asked nervously, as he broke, and he let out a single sob, before she pulled him into her arms, holding him tight, "What happened, honey?" She asked, as he cried._**

 ** _"It- it," He stuttered as she pulled away from him, staring into his blue eyes with those chocolate brown ones of hers, "It happened again..." He said as she frowned sadly, "I- I'm sorry."_**

 ** _"What?" She asked, "What do you have to be sorry for?" She asked as she walked him inside the apartment, her large belly rising up and down as she breathed._**

 ** _Joe let go of her hand when they entered the kitchen, "I just... I thought I had talent," He mumbled as Jeannie sat down at the kitchen table, staring at him as he pressed his forehead against the window, "I thought I was... I wanted to make people laugh." The rain poured down in the streets of the poor district, the night air frisk and smelly._**

 ** _"Oh honey," Jeannie said, her voice cracking in sympathy, "They're just people, don't listen to them."_**

 ** _"I can't!" He turned toward her, his tears pouring from his eyes, "You can't begin to understand what it's like! To have to stand up there, and nobody laughs, but you have to keep going, and going, knowing you won't get anything for-" He suddenly came out of his fit of rage, as he looked at the fear in her eyes, and his balled up fists, "Oh- oh god," He sobbed as he collapsed to his knees, "I- I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." He cried as she wrapped her arms around his head._**

 ** _"It's okay," She told him in her soothing voice, "You'll always know how to make me laugh, Joe," She told him, as she rubbed his back, "Even if the rest of Gotham can't see you."_**

* * *

"Sir? Sir?" Amaru asked the costumer, who had frozen up again, "You there?"

The man shook his head, taking himself out of his thoughts, "Yes- yes. Sorry," The man rubbed his eyes, before the grin returned to his face, "Show me the rest of your park."

Amaru smiled as he walked over to the assembly line, "This is the last place," He told the man, "Sign this." He handed the man a holopad, which had a pen stuck to it, and a line for a signature next to the ownership agreement.

"See that's the thing, heh, heh," The man laughed, as he put his gloved hand on his face, "I won't be _buying_ this place."

"What do you mean?" Amaru asked as he messaged his son he was almost home for dinner.

"I'll take the whole place." Amaru turned back to face him just as a gunshot went off, and a bullet tore through his chest, "It's mine now," The man stood over him, as he wiped away the tan make-up he had been wearing, to reveal the same pale face a red smile that had been seen on the holonet for the past month, "Feel free to stick around! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

* * *

 **I'm getting to the REALLY good stuff in the next chapter, I'm so excited for this. Everything in this chapter of the story is kicking off the finale, the Joker's endgame. His point. I'm taking some inspiration from other Joker material, which I will list in the final chapter, which is coming up soon. The next chapter will unite the entire cast of characters (Hera, Batman, Ursa, Sabine, Joker, Alrich, and Fenn Rau.) for the first time. And everything after that will be intense. So I'm putting a trigger warning early on (No excessive gore or anything, don't worry), but a lot of stuff will be affected by what's coming next.**

 **IF YOU KNOW WHAT IS COMING (AND I KNOW SOME OF YOU BATMAN FANS DO) DO NOT SPOIL IT!**

 **Reviews will always help me get my chapters out quicker, hearing you guys' input is always helpful. And if you have questions, I'll be answering them at the beginning of some chapters. Thanks again for reading!**

-MB


	7. The Joker's First Act

**Krownest, Detention Facility #0874**

"What do you mean he just walked in?" Sabine demanded as the doors swished open into the elevator, "You didn't catch him?" She'd gotten word from her mother that they'd caught the maniac who killed her brother two days ago, and she'd been sent by her parents to _evaluate_ him in any way she saw fit, and they'd gotten permission to do this from Bo-Katan herself.

The officer shook his head as the elevator dinged and began to move upwards within the facility, "He just appeared inside the headquarters, no explanation, no obvious motive, and he certainly wasn't worried," The way he said the words were giving away his tone, he clearly found this whole ordeal with the so-called "Joker" deeply disturbing, especially the fact he simply surrendered without any reason at all, "You think you can get anything out of him?"

Sabine however, wasn't feeling much better about this herself. It was only two days ago she'd gotten a message from the man himself, which was cryptic in more ways than one, and equally frightening, "I don't know," She said. Her heart still ached from her brother's death, like someone had punched a hole right through her heart, "But this man killed my brother, Officer. I have to see him."

When the elevator came to a stop, her heart ache was replaced with anger almost instantly. The doors opened to reveal the same cell block design as the Imperial one, grey panels covering angry red lights on the floor, the walls were bent like an arrowhead, and everything was made of pure durasteel, nothing could get in or out. She set her foot out onto the floor as the impact echoed through the cell block, with no one besides her or the officer with her to hear it. The halls were empty.

"We had to withdraw our guards from this hallway," The officer said eerily, "It seems our... _guest_ has given them quite a fright, we had some of them that refused to be anywhere within a hundred feet of that room, and those weren't even the people who went _in_ to the cell," Sabine raised an eyebrow inquisitively, as the officer sigh and spoke, "Every single one of the guards we sent in that room came out crying, distraught and scared. Even the ones who simply went to give him his meals," Sabine stared at the door to the cell as she approached, "Three of them have gone insane since they went inside," The young artist sucked in a breath as he spoke, "Miss Wren, I must say, I've never seen anything quite like him before. And your mother has to understand that. We are dealing with someone we do not understand at all."

Sabine nodded slowly, closing her eyes, steadying her breath, "Open the door." She ordered, as the officer sigh, and walked to the monitor next to the door, and punched in the code. The door opened within a second, and the first thing she noticed was the smell. The cell smelled of acid and lye, the lights were interestingly dim, and a lone figure in a grey jumpsuit sat at a table, staring at the wall with blank eyes.

She stepped down the steps into the room, seeing the man fully, noticing he was laying out three decks of old playing cards, and his face was shrouded in shadow. Sabine approached the table cautiously, pulling a chair from the corner of the room, and placed it across from the figure at the table. The man's fingers froze abruptly as he placed another card onto the desk, but he didn't look up. A moment later he resumed laying out the decks, "Hola." The man said with a giggle at the end of his words.

The air grew suddenly quiet, even the blow of the vents seemingly ceased as the man spoke, "Tell me everything," Sabine said, but the Joker only continued placing cards, "How did you find my brother?" She growled, the mission Tristan had been sent on had was top secret, only the highest officials knew of it, "Where did you see him?"

"Heh," The Joker chuckled, his grin growing larger and larger, "HehehehehahaHAHAHA! I'm supposed to being telling the jokes around here, colors," He leaned forward, allowing her to get a good look at his face. His face was pale, his grin stretching from ear to ear, and a neat mound of green hair on the top of his head, "You don't seem capable of accepting that maybe some of your officers are more loyal to cash than honor, heheh!"

Sabine clenched her fists and grit her teeth at his face, "How did you find my brother?" She asked, ignoring his answer.

"Does it bother you?" He asked, leaning forward even more, "To know just how alone you really are?" He asked, his grinning face inches away from hers, " _Bean_." Sabine finally snapped at the name Ezra had called her, and seized his collar, pulling him over the table to her face, "Oh? Did I touch a nerve?" She growled and threw him into the wall, the sound of his skull cracking against the metal could be heard through the entire facility.

She threw a punch at his skull, "How do you know about him?!" She screamed, her mind frantically trying to work out ways to make him talk, "WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT EZRA BRIDGER?!" She brought her boot down on his face, making him collapse onto the ground, but he just laughed. And he laughed. He kriffing _laughed_.

"AHAH! AHOOHOO! You have- nothing!" He shouted at her from the ground, his voice sounding of pure delight, "Nothing to do with all of your anger!" She grabbed his hair, and smashed his face against the table, but he kept laughing. Always laughing.

She put her hands around his neck, and squeezed, leaning in closely, "Where. Is. He?"

"Taken care of," He choked out, making her eyes go wide in shock, "Haha, you should see the look on your fa-" She punched him again, knocking him to the ground again, as she brought up her foot, slamming it down on his skull. Again. And Again. And again until she drew blood with each stomp, "Heh- heh- ack! That was..." He gagged as she rushed away from him, " _Hilarious_."

Sabine ran out of the cell, closing the door behind her, as she gasped for air. And then the tears came. And they came hard. She slid down the wall, her hands covering her face, sobbing loudly when she hit the floor. The artist sat there crying, crying out for him, "No... no, not him..."

"EZRAAAAAA!"

* * *

 **In The Cell,**

The Joker coughed as he sat up, his face bleeding and bruised, but he was cackling maniacally, "HEEEEEHEEEE! AHOHOHAHAHAaaa..." He got up in his chair sitting there laughing to himself, his cards sitting before him as he pulled one out, and a _clank_ could be heard from above him, as he looked at the card he'd pulled from the deck, "Now for the jester to see the king," He looked up at the ceiling.

"Come find me, Bats."

* * *

 **The Halls,**

"What's going on?" Sabine heard voices coming from around the corner, making her hand come up to wipe away the tears that had come from her eyes, "Where's Sabine?" It was her father, he was here, "Sabine? Sabine!" He yelled as he turned the corner, and he saw her face, her eyes stung from the tears, and her heart ached more than it ever had before, "Sabine, what's wrong?"

She felt her legs go weak as she fell into her father's arms, "He killed him," She told her father, as he held her head, "He killed Ezra." Alrich was silent, but his grip around her tightened, he knew she was attached to the young padawan the moment he saw them, and losing her friend... losing him... was like losing a part of herself, the hole that had been in her heart before had grown, and now there was nothing left.

"Sabine," He said, pulling away from her to look her in the eye, "I don't think he is," She looked at him, a small glimmer of hope ignited in her chest with those words, "But there is something else I need you for," She stared with those hazel eyes of hers, "There's something on the top floor of the building, I sent a team to investigate but they haven't come back." He came to get her for this, and it was something to take her mind off of this whole situation.

She swallowed a sob and nodded, "I'll go." She said, grabbing a blaster, and walked toward the elevator. As she stepped into the small, dark compartment tucked into the shaft, the lights flickered ominously, making short bursts of noise as they flashed. Sabine pressed her finger onto the button, as the doors closed around her, and it began to slide upwards.

Sabine checked the charge on her blasters- full capacity, good. She had left her gauntlets in the lobby below, she'd have to remember to get them later. The doors opened into the top floor of the building, she expected it to be some rat messing with the systems, but when she arrived, she could tell something was very wrong. The top floor led directly to the warden's office, who was off world, dealing with personal matters. The office's back wall was entirely glass, providing a full view of the capitol city below, but when Sabine looked at the window, there was a large hole in it, like something had hurtled through it with incredible speed.

Wind rushed past her face as she stepped into the office cautiously, her feet clanking against the floor. No doubt whoever was in here could hear her very clearly. She aimed her blaster at every dark corner of the room, eyeing every possible hiding spot for the intruder. In the center of the room was a gray durasteel desk, with shelves of sculptures and personal items of the warden's, with a holo-chess board tucked in the upper right corner. Sabine's eyes scanned the room, seeing nothing at first, but when she got closer something glinted on the desk at her.

The wind kicked up as she got closer, looking onto the desk, and spotted a small, strangely shaped piece of shrapnel lodged into the metal. She grabbed it and picked it up, noticing that it wasn't shrapnel at all, it was some kind of steel, and it was shaped like a... bat?

Just then, something moved in the corner of her eye, as she spun towards it and put her finger on her blaster's trigger, "Stop! Don't shoot!" A familiar voice yelled, as Sabine peered around her gun, seeing Hera standing before her, "I expect a warm welcome."

"Oh kriff, Hera," Sabine said as she wrapped her arms around her former captain in a hug, "I could've shot you!" As she pulled away, confusion hit her, "What are you doing up here anyway?"

"Well," said Hera, pointing a finger past Sabine, "You'd have to ask him."

A shadow moved behind her, and a deep voice echoed through the night, "Tell me," The voice asked as she whirled around, and a figure stood crouched on a shelf above her, his body and face completely concealed by shadow, but his two white eyes shone in the moonlight, and a cape flapping behind him, "Where do you keep your trash?"

* * *

 **I know, it's been a while. I was a little confused about how this chapter's going to work, it took me sometime to lay out how I was going to write this, but I know exactly what's going to happen for these next few chapters. This was mainly just to get all the characters together, to have Batman and Hera group up with Sabine and Clan Wren.**

 **Also, this whole situation isn't going to go the way you think (Unless you've read my source material, in which case keep your trap shut). I might do a few one-shots as a follow up when this story concludes, since I think there's a lot of neat stories that could come out of this, and maybe a sequel involving another, more interesting (albeit lesser-known) DC character. I'm getting ahead of myself, but Ursa and The Joker will have a big role going forward, and Sabine's story arch will be wrapping up in a chapter or two (For reasons that are secret, again, don't say anything).**

 **If you're only reading this story for Sabezra, don't worry, I'll get to that. And Sabine will still play a big role in the story even if she isn't in it as much, trust me on this one. And it's also about to go into the Batman and Joker dynamic a lot more, so if you've been holding out for that it's coming.**

 **One final note: The Division 2 is awesome. Please review if you liked it, and if you guys ARE interested in what happens next, the next chapter will come out very fast. Within the next five days or so probably. Anyway, have a good one!**

-MB


	8. I've Been Thinking Lately

**I highly recommend reading this chapter with the song "Inner Demon" from Batman Arkham Knight in the background, it fits the mood so well.**

* * *

 **The Halls**

"Sabine, status report..." Ursa Wren's voice trailed off as her daughter rounded a corner, followed by a tall man with a cape, plated grey and black armor, and cowl with pointed ears on the top, "Who is that?" She asked, pointing at the figure.

Sabine shrugged, "I'm not sure, but Hera says he's with her." She said as Hera came out from the corner.

The man walked right past Sabine without a word, and approached the door to the "Joker's" cell, "Hey!" Fenn Rau came charging towards the door, and put his arm out in front of the stranger, "You aren't cleared to be here. Guards!" He shouted, as a single Mandalorian walked from the elevator toward them, and grabbed a pair of cuffs from his pocket.

The guard walked toward the man, preparing to put the cuffs on him. Just then, the man brought his fist up behind him without even looking at the guard, and punched him so hard his visor cracked. He took Rau by the collar and leaned in closely, "Let me give you a word of advice." He then whispered into Rau's ear, as Sabine watched his face turn from one of anger, and then to one of fear.

"Okay, okay! Get away from me!" He pushed himself away from the man, breathing hard, "The code is 98135, just go." The man half smirked to himself as he looked at the panel, punching in the code as the door opened, as he walked inside without a word, the door closing behind him.

Ursa looked around strangely, "Who the hell was that?"

Hera held in a laugh, "He's the god damned _Batman_."

* * *

 _There were these two guys in a lunatic asylum._

"Hello," The Batman said as the door shut behind him, and he was faced with his greatest enemy, who was sitting quietly in his seat, "I came to talk." The Joker sat still, only the bare outline of his face could be seen in the dim light of the cell. His hands rested on the table, and he stared straight ahead silently as Batman began to approach him. Bruce grabbed a chair from the other side of the room, and dragged it toward the table.

He took in the Joker's facial expression, from the small bit of it he could see. It looked as though he had his signature grin on his face, but there was something different about it... something... out of place. The detective took a seat in the chair across from him, and rested his hands on the table.

"I've been thinking lately," He said, still no response, "About you and me. About how this is going to end," There was still no reply, the only sound was the faint drip of the faucet at the sink built into the room, "We're going to kill each other. Aren't we?" The outline of the Joker's smile curved upwards as Bruce said this, but it wasn't as wide as it often was, "You know this, don't you?"

The lights seemed to focus on the two of them at the small table, like the two of them were the stars of some Broadway play, "Perhaps I'll kill you," Bruce said, now expecting anything to come out of the Joker's mouth, but nothing came, "Perhaps you'll kill me. Perhaps sooner, perhaps later." The clown reached across the left side of the table, taking a deck of his playing cards, and began to casually sort through them.

"I just..." Bruce said, "I need to know. That when that day comes, that I made one real attempt to talk things over. To try and revert the inevitable." The Joker kept looking through his cards, just as Bruce grabbed his hand in anger, "Listen to me! This is life and death here, mine or yours! I don't want your murder on my..." The Joker drew his hand away quickly, covering it with his other hand, as Bruce felt something his glove. Make-up. _White make up_ , "Hands..."

Rage welled up in Bruce's heart, anger and horror taking control of him, "H- hey," The Joker said, but not in the same voice, as the Batman seized him by the collar, "You can't touch me, I got rights!"

The Dark Knight held the Joker up to his face, and wiping a hand across his cheek, and the white rubbed off onto his hands, revealing tan skin below it, "WHERE IS HE?" The fake Joker screamed in terror as Batman held him up over the table, his legs dangling below him.

The door swished open as Ursa Wren and Sabine rushed in, "Unhand him! If you harm a hair on his hea-" She began to say until he tore at the man's hair, as it came off smoothly, and he held up a green wig in Ursa's face.

"If you want it, it's yours, Countess. Now, you squirming son of bitch," Batman said as he pulled the impostor closer to his face, snarling in anger, " _Where is he?"_

* * *

 **The Ghost, 01:00**

"What do you mean _you don't know_?" Hera shouted, "You told me you were the _only_ person he would speak to, the _only_ person who knew him, the _only_ person who knows what he'll do next, and he slipped right through your fingers!" She paced back and fourth inside the Ghost's cockpit, as Batman stood before her, his cape closed around his body, and his eyes narrowed.

"Not entirely," He said, making Hera look at him, "The man who was impersonating him told me that he was planning something big, trying to prove some _point_."

She shook her head in frustration, "Oh, okay, that's _so_ helpful!" When he'd left the interrogation room Ursa offered to let him stay, but he declined, opting to stick with an undisclosed location. If there was one thing that Hera learned from him, it was that if he knew something, there was a very good chance he wouldn't tell you about it until the minute it served his needs, "All right fine. Are there any leads, any possible places he would be?"

He seemed to consider this as she continued pacing in circles, each step increasing her paranoia, "Maybe. I'll be in touch."

Hera spun on her heel toward him, "What? You're just going to leave?" He didn't answer, instead he was already opening the hatch at the top of the ship, but the Twi'lek captain quickly grabbed her pistol, aiming at the button to the hatch, and firing two quick bolts at it, just like she'd learned from Kanan. The bolts seared through the ship, their blood red color illuminated the walls, laying a red blanket over Sabine's old paintings. They both found their mark about an inch away from the Batman's hand, making him jerk his hand away, "Listen, this man already took my _boy_ from me," She pursed her lips to hold back possible sobs, "I won't have you hiding things from me when he wants to take everything from Sabine, or Zeb, or _me_."

Batman squinted at her, clearly annoyed, "Number one, he's bluffing. Ezra's alive," Hera's pistol went down a little, the hope in her chest rising, but when she did, Batman quickly hurled a small piece of metal in her direction, as it soared across the hall, and made impact with her pistol, and sent it flying out of her hands, "Number two," He growled as he slowly walked forward, "I don't think you understand who you're dealing with here. He isn't like Vader or Thrawn. He's a maniac. Pure and Simple. So forgive me if _I_ don't want to lose anyone else to that madman!" He shouted at her furiously.

And then it clicked, he'd been through a lot with that man, lost a lot. But then there was the question how he could possibly know so much about him, how he could know so much about someone no one knew anything about. He'd told her that the Joker was telling some twisted joke about how stupid rules and order were, how fantastic our idea of sanity was. A joke that wasn't funny to anyone else, that no one understood. Except him. "The Joke he's telling- why aren't you laughing?" She asked him. If he got the joke, then why wasn't he? He dressed up in a batsuit and beat up criminals, why _wouldn't_ he?

He stared at her, clearly he understood the implication, "Because I've heard it before," He looked at something behind her, making Hera follow his gaze, noticing something on the window of the Ghost, "And it wasn't funny the first time." She looked back toward him, but he was gone. The hatch was open and wind was quickly coming in, but there was no trace left of him.

She looked back at the window, stepping toward it carefully, and reaching up to the small, red and white rectangle in the metal beams that held it together. She took it and spun it around, noticing it was a playing card, and looked down at it...

 _Joker_.

* * *

 **Krownest, The Countess's Quarters, 03:00**

"I don't understand," Ursa mumbled as she scrolled through the holonet, looking at all of the news stories and inside scoops that had come out of the most wanted terrorist on Mandalore escaping from their grasp, "There was no way out of that cell, no way he could have made it out of there." She looked at all the headlines: _So-Called "Joker" Escapes From Mandalorian Detention Facility, Terrorist Escapes After Turning Himself In, Insane Murderer Drives Seven People Insane Before Escaping Prison,_ it went on and on.

Sabine paused as she painted on a blank canvas, looking particularly troubled by the whole ordeal, "I looked over all the blueprints to the building, checked all the cameras," She said, her voice calm, as she so often disguised it to be, "There's no way he could've escaped with out us knowing."

"But he _did_." Ursa said, putting down her holopad and staring at her daughter, "He managed to get past four armed guards, and another six dozen below, plus the entirety of the police force in the area."

"Don't forget our new friend."

"And him." Ursa said, resting her head on her palm, "What do you think's going to happen?"

Sabine shook her head, her hair was getting longer, making Ursa wonder if she'd actually let it grow this time. She'd look good with long hair, like she did when she was little, "If I had to guess, I'd say he's going to keep working on that "point" he kept talking about."

As Ursa opened her mouth to speak, the buzzer sounded at the back door to the room, "Expecting someone?" Ursa asked her daughter, who put down her paints and admired her piece for a moment.

"Yes, actually. I was going to a museum to take my mind off of this stuff, Meldy's coming to pick me up," Ursa nodded and smiled a little at her daughter's semi happy mood, she hadn't seen her like that in weeks, "Besides, I think the Joker's done with us by now." Sabine looked back at her mother with a smile, the one that always warmed her heart to see. And maybe... just maybe... everything would be okay.

...

 _This one'll really kill you._

The door opened, and Sabine turned to Meldy with a smile, only it wasn't Meldy. Before her stood a man in Mandalorian armor spray painted green and purple, with an oddly shaped head, a purple fedora on top of green hair, a pale white face, and a blood red grin. She looked at him in horror, his eyes covered with the shadow of the brim of his hat, but they shone in the dark, appearing as small, white lights were his eyes should be seen.

"Peek-a-boo." She trembled with fear as she noticed his left arm raised to her stomach, as she looked downwards nervously, and saw a silver gun pointed directly at her chest, point blank range. And then...

 _BANG!_

It was the sound that came first, then the fear. It tore through her heart like a hurricane coming through a small house, as she felt something small and powerful enter her abdomen, and she was knocked off her feet. Sabine flew backwards, her eyes squeezed shut as pain ripped into her chest, and she heard her mother's scream. She hit the ground hard, crashing onto a glass coffee table before she hit the ground on her back, and she squeezed her stomach tightly, and felt something begin to come up from it. _Blood._

Ursa shot to her feet as her daughter came crashing down onto the table, "S- Sabine?" She stuttered, her breath becoming extremely tight.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry yet if I were you," A familiar voice came from the doorway, "It's just a physicological manifestation, common among young artists," Ursa fell to her knees and cupped Sabine's cheek in her hands, "Though I can't say much for her masterpiece of a body, there's a hole in her suit, and the spine appears to be damaged."

Anger welled up inside of the Countess, making her grit her teeth in rage, "YOU MONSTER! I'LL- ugh!" A strong fist came down onto her cheek, knocking her to the ground, as a rather large man grabbed her throat and pressed her against a wall.

"Will you now? Not very "by the book" of you, Lady Wren. Too bad your daughter won't be walking off the shelf any time soon!" He laughed as the thug threw her to the ground and stepped on her back, "In fact, the idea of her walking anywhere at all is becoming increasingly remote!" Ursa grunted as she was lifted onto her feet, and a needle poked itself into her neck, and her vision began to fade, "Take the mother were she needs to be, and do be careful! After all, she's topping the bill! Heh heh!" The Joker knelt down beside the younger Wren, as she clutched her wound and tears began to fall from her eyes, "So sorry you won't be able to see your mother's debut, Miss Wren, but our program wasn't built for the disabled in mind."

"Wha- Why are you- doing this?" Sabine choked out as the Joker took out a camera from his pocket, and his fingers found a zipper to her top at the back of her shirt.

He giggled, " _To prove a point_ ," He repeated from their exchange over the holonet earlier, " _Here's to crime._ "

* * *

 **Don't worry, not doing gore, lemon, rape, or any of that stuff. This is still rated T for T-Series.**

 **All it takes is one bad day...**

-MB


	9. About You And Me (Updated)

**I made a few changes to how I tackled this incident, and some of the things in the chapter were probably a little much. To everyone who has read the source material, it does feel different when you're the one writing it. So for anyone who thought this chapter was too much, I changed a few things.**

 **However, to Spectre6, please don't EVER question a writer's mental state. That it is one of the worst things you could do them.**

* * *

 **09:00, Krownest Infirmary**

"I'm we've done all we can do," The doctor said with remorse, "There's severe damage to the spinal cord, and her legs are almost entirely useless. I wouldn't count on her walking anywhere anytime soon." The Batman stared out the window and into the street, with Fenn Rau and a medical doctor behind him. The room was very dark, mainly due to the tech that they used, and the only furniture was a medical bed and a heartbeat monitor.

On the bed was Sabine Wren, still unconscious from the incident last night, "Thank you, Doctor." Rau said as Bruce kept staring, this whole situation felt strangely familiar, but he couldn't figure out why. He heard Fenn begin to approach the window next to him, the smoke from one of their versions of cigarettes clouding the room, and fogging up the windows to the streets of the city below, "I got the report for you, but it's not pretty. You sure you can handle it?"

"Try me." Bruce said.

Rau sighed in what seemed like dread, like he was hoping that the detective wouldn't want to know, "About five hours ago, a woman by the name of Meldy Kryze called law enforcement to Clan Wren's fortress. When they arrived, the door to a secret passageway from the back of the fortress was left open, and a single guard was positioned there, but he was found dead with a abnormally large grin on his face," Rau said, shuffling his feet nervously, "The victim- Sabine- was found in a... um... pose-"

"Pose?" Bruce asked, clenching his fist as he registered what Rau had just told him.

The Mandalorian looked at him strangely, "They didn't tell you? I though you knew," Batman turned away from him, and twirled a Joker card found at the scene in his fingers, "There was also a lens cap from a camera found there, and it wasn't like the ones we have, so, er..."

Bruce stopped in his tracks, " _Say it_."

"Well, we believe he took some pictures. Of her." Batman sucked in a breath as the words exited the soldier's mouth, and his stomach churning in anger, "Look I'm sorry, I thought they told you." The Dark Knight stepped forward, walking toward Sabine's bed, as she lay there in a medical gown, a needle pushed into her forearm, "I'm off, I have to escort her father from the landing bay when he arrives. What are you going to do?"

 _Hello, I came to talk._ Bruce rested his hand on the rails of the bed, looking down at the young warrior, someone Ezra had trusted him to protect. And he failed. He looked down at the card, squinting in anger and hate at it, "I'm going to find him. It's time for this to end." His eyes went from the card to Sabine, as he tried to work out how to explain to her what the Joker had taken from her.

"If you truly are who you say you are," Fenn said from somewhere behind him, the mechanical sound of a door sliding open could be heard as he stepped into the doorway, "Then we're all holding you to it. Until we meet again." With that final word, the door slid closed, and Bruce was left alone with Sabine.

"You can stop now." Bruce said, turning from Sabine to the monitor, tapping the buttons as he increased the morphine he'd put into it, and just as he predicted, Sabine's eyes opened, and went right to him.

"How'd you know?" She asked, her voice indicated that she wasn't actually focused on getting an answer to that question, so he didn't answer it, "Why can't I move my legs?" His fingers froze for a minute on the keypad, and he took in a breath, before he resumed his typing, "Batman?" There was still a little sarcasm in her voice as she said his name, but there overwhelming amounts of worry within it.

He exhaled slowly, "He shot you in the abdomen," Her eyes widened, that alone was enough to make Bruce reconsider telling her or not, "The round heavily damaged the spinal cord," Sabine's head sank slowly as she stared down at her feet, "It- It paralyzed you. I'm sorry." Her expression changed, the face that so often was covered in frustration and determination, was now the same expression he saw in the mirror in the months after his parents were killed.

"I-" She began, but she choked on her own words, and she visibly was trying to move her legs, but they were as still as they had ever been, "No... no my mother! Where is she?" The artist stared up at him, waiting patiently for an answer, but this time, it was too much. He'd told enough young children that their parents weren't coming back, he wasn't ready to tell her, "What is he doing to her?"

"I don't know."

"You said you knew him!" She yelled, "You knew what he'd do! That man took my brother, then my mother, and now my life from me! And you have done NOTHING!" She grabbed his cape in fury, "What is he doing to my mother?"

He couldn't look at her, it was too much. Her grip on his cape began to slip, but he grasped her wrists, and stared her right in the eye, "I don't know what he's planning to do to your mother," He told her, as she looked at him with those frightened chocolate eyes, "But I swear to you on my life, Sabine Wren, I will find out." He watched as her eyes began to fade, and sleep began to take hold of her. He slowly set her down on the bed as she fell unconscious again, before turning away toward the window, and leaving without a trace.

* * *

 **Unknown Regions, ?**

"ARRRGH!" Ezra threw his fist against the wall of his hut, the stone that he had built it with crumble on impact, "Get out, get out, get out!" He'd been in his head this whole time. _The Joker_ was in his head, "Get out of my head!" He put his hands on his hair, thrashing his head back and fourth in some frivolous attempt to return command over his thoughts to himself.

 _'You should've seen her face, HA!' Joker's voice came again, the laughing briefly stopping, 'She kept mumbling your name during her photo-shoot, AHAHA!'_

Ezra's vision slowly began to decay, the colors beginning to be mismatched with purple and green, "What did you do to her?" He knew that Kanan would tell him to calm himself right now, but it was too much, too much rage, "You god damn maniac, what did you do to her?" The laughing in his head grew louder and louder, it was almost like it was coming from right behind him, no in front of him, or no to his left! He screamed in rage and swung his fist to his left, only for it to slam against the stone, scraping his knuckles instantly, and drawing blood.

 _'Oh, oh, nonono, this one'll_ really _kill you!' The clown prince's laughing grew louder and louder, 'See these two guys walk into a club, but they don't get any of the ladies' attention, so the first guy, he suggests; "Hey man, hows about we go gets ourselves some cash so we can get some of these chicks in bed, eh?" But ohhhhh, no, the second guy, ya see, he isn't the kinda guy to pull cheep tricks on girls to get their attention!'_

"Sabine, what did you do to her?"

 _'Oh shut your mouth, kiddo, I'm getting to that!' The Joker sneered, before his giggles continued, 'Now, the second guy, he says; "Naw, man. I heard that there's some princess stayin' over at that hotel, how's that sound?" The first guy agrees, so they head over to the royal hotel, with the first guy's trusty revolver, and then knock on the princess's door. Now the princess, she puts down her painting, and goes right over to the door, opens it, and then BANG!'_

Ezra puts his hand to his mouth as it dawns on him what the Joker is telling him, but right as he places his hand on his mouth, the laughing stops suddenly, and he finds his mouth wide open.

 _The Joker continued speaking, 'See now, she's on the ground, bleeding out like a goat in the slaughterhouse, and the first guy, he's not sure what to do; "So now what, she's bout to die?' See, he was never that smart, so the second guy has an idea; "Hey! I've got this camera with me, we can snap some pictures and sell 'em to some of those loons over in Arkham!" AHAHAHAHAHA!'_

"No, no you didn't!"

 _'Oh yes I did,' He laughed in delight, 'And maybe, just maybe, little squirt will do it himself! Isn't that right,_ Ezzy boy!'

"Oh, oh god." Ezra sank to his knees on the ground, the tears beginning to form, "Sabine! SABIIIIIINNNNNAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" There was no voice in his head, no imaginary laughing...

Because the laughing came from his own mouth, as he sat there. _Laughing_.

* * *

 **The Ghost, 07:00**

"I don't want to speak to you, ever again." Hera growled as she stormed into the cockpit of the Ghost, with Batman trailing behind her. She walked into the room, and pressed the lock button on the door, making it slam shut. She took in a breath and sat down in Sabine's spray painted chair, and pressing her palms against the seat. She felt tears begin to run down her cheeks as she thought back to the report she'd gotten from the scene.

The first thing she felt was horror. Reading the description of what was found, the state of which Sabine had been found in, and the sheer amount of photos that were taken from the scene. The very thought of what Sabine must be feeling right now broke her heart into pieces, the warrior who loved causing mischief on missions, leading her family into battle against the Empire, all of that had been ripped away by one man with a gun.

As the tears poured down, the door swished open again, as Batman stood there looking the darkest he'd ever been, "I think I know where he is," He told her in usual growling voice, and he tossed a datachip onto the table, "But I need a ship." Hera scowled at him, but breathed outwards, and looked down at the chip, it read one word: _Mand'alor_.

* * *

 **So this is probably the third to last chapter, and it will be the last one where Ezra will be heavily featured, but I've got plans for him, don't worry. We're in the Joker's endgame now, so things will start to ramp up from here, and the inter-dimensional travel will slowly become less and less of a mystery as time goes on. But I am going to announce the semi-sequel/spin-off of this story: _MANHATTAN_. Some of you may recognize that name, but it will be a crossover story between Stranger Things and a DC story called Watchmen, both set in the eighties, and will directly tie into this. But anyway, next chapter will be heavily focused on Ursa and Joker, and where Hera and Batman's investigation is taking them. **

**Reviews make all the difference, and will always make the chapters come out quicker, since it helps a lot to hear what you all think of these. Thanks for reading!**

-MB


	10. Royal Flush

**Before we begin, the last chapter was changed a little, so go look if you haven't already.**

* * *

 **The Ghost, Mandalorian Air Space**

"Is there no way to allow her to walk again?" Batman's came from over the comms, as Hera sat in the cockpit with Chopper, "Any type of neurological link from her brain to her legs?" It wasn't like these ideas hadn't gone through Hera's head already, but there were problems. A lot of them.

The Twi'lek shook her head, "Not a safe way, the last few times they tried using an artificial nervous system, three out of the four people that used them suffered complete paralysis about a month later," It was true that they had the technology to do it, but the human body was very different than a space ship, it had miles upon miles of internal wiring that if damaged, they had no safe way to fix, "The only way to do anything is with artificial legs, and I doubt she'll oblige to that."

 _Skywalker had one though,_ Chopper beeped, waving his arms around like he always did, _And it looked completely real.  
_

"He was the fourth one, and he had the force to help him," Hera said, the whole situation was depressing to her as it is, "What does the Mand'alor have to do with this?" She asked, partly to herself, partly to Batman.

"He's not talking about the actual leader, he's talking about the capital city, that's where he is," He replied, the beeps of the computer he brought with him were getting increasingly frequent, "An old factory that was abandoned about ten years ago was purchased last week, under an anonymous name. That's where he is." It had been abundantly clear that whoever this "Joker" was, he had some sort of endgame in mind, one that would, in theory, be detrimental to everyone involved but him.

Something felt strange about this whole situation, excluding everything that happened in the Wren family, it felt like they'd been here before. Somehow, "What made him this way?" Hera asked into the comm, expecting him not to answer again, "What could've made someone laugh while being beaten to a pulp, crack jokes while he shot my-" She sucked down a sob, just like she had everytime she thought of Sabine, " _Friend_. Why? Why would he do this?"

There was a long silence, before he answered, "I don't know. I know nothing about his past," Hera furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, how could two people hate each other so much while knowing nothing about each other, "But whatever happened to him, I think I've been there too." As the atmosphere slowly faded from darkness to brownish clouds, the lights of the capitol city shone from below them, and an escort of fighters approached from the dome.

" _This is Mandalorian Air Space Patrol, call sign Royal Flush. Identify yourself."_ A voice came from one of the channel Hera opened.

The Captain held the button to respond, "Yes, this is Hera Syndulla, I am one of the investigators into Ursa Wren's disappearance." Batman stayed quiet, since he wasn't exactly cleared to be here. In fact, he was now officially on a blacklist of people who were supposed to be watched by the government, but he seemed to be quite good at slipping out of their hands.

 _"Understood. Welcome to Mandalore, Captain Syndulla. Follow us."_ With that, the fighters pulled a sharp turn back towards the city, their yellow engines leaving trails of smoke in the air.

"Strange, they usually ask for some code. Must've forgotten." Hera said, noting it for later. Batman remained silent, as he almost always did when he didn't really need to respond to anything. Hera pushed the Ghost downwards, as a single doorway opened into the city of Keldabe, the capital of Mandalore. The fighters fell into formation and slowed down to fit inside, with the Ghost in the middle of them all.

The blue light of the doorway faded into the bright light of the buildings contained with the dome, and the hundreds of thousands of small glass boxes forming buildings and houses. Hundreds of hovercrafts darted through the air, and thousands of civilians and soldiers mingled on the walkways below. The lower regions of the city were where crime often festered, and was a maze of abandoned mansions, factories, and government buildings.

The fighters dove downwards into the lower city, as Hera tilted the Ghost down to follow. They flew beneath the bustling of the city above, and into the yellow and black air of the lower city. When Hera looked over to the nav-computer, it read that the factory Batman had pinpointed was directly below them, "This it!" She told him in the comms, "Looks like you were right after all."

"Wait," His voice came from behind her, and he was suddenly standing to her left, almost like he had been there the whole time, "Get the escape pods ready now."

She raised her eyebrows in confusion, "What? Why?"

"Because the _"Royal Flush"_ isn't a real call sign." He growled, making her eyes go wide. She turned around to get the pods ready to go, only to see the fighters pull a J-turn, and then flip back around to face the ship, "Get down!" Batman yelled, throwing her onto the floor just as the ships opened fire. The cockpit window shattered suddenly, hitting the controls and making the ship spin out of control.

Hera grabbed onto Chopper's leg, who had magnetized himself to the ship, but Batman wasn't so lucky. He managed to get a hold of a crack in the floor, but after a moment his fingers began to slip, before he was thrown out of the ship from the wind, as it spun out of control.

* * *

 **Lower Levels of Keldabe, 20:00**

 _"Syndulla's here,"_ A voice came from the trooper's below, as they approached the smoking crash site of the Ghost, _"Don't see the bat guy you were tell us about, though."_ Bruce stood perched on a small apartment complex, looking through binoculars at the troopers, who wore typical Mandalorian armor, but he knew they were either payed off, or brought here by the Joker.

 _"Perhaps, but I can guarantee you, from personal experience, that he's probably staring at you from somewhere else,"_ The Joker's voice responded from one of the soldier's comms, _"Don't bother looking though, he is the guest of honor, after all. Heheh."_

The soldiers dragged a knocked out Hera Syndulla from the wreckage, making Bruce grit his teeth in frustration, " _What do we do with Syndulla?"_ He stood up, putting the binoculars away, and getting his grapnel launcher ready.

" _Whatever you please, she's not too important at the moment_." The soldiers began to look at each other in excitement, just before Hera's hand snapped to her pistol, and she fired a quick bolt at one of the trooper's faces. The other two jumped at the sound, but both were quickly cut down by her blaster.

Bruce smirked at the Twi'lek's strategy, watching as she beckoned Chopper away from the wreckage, and started towards the factory. He wasn't going there right now, though. He had other means to attend to.

* * *

 **Okay so this chapter was finished a while ago, but I wanted to wait for things to calm down a little. But I figured I should include this, since the last chapter was... not too well received by some of you.**

 **To Tython: I know you are upset, but just stick around. I have plans for her.**

 **And to everyone, please don't turn this into a hateful review space, regardless of what side your on. I appreciate those who are protective of the characters, and those who are interested into the overarching plot, but I don't want you guys fighting each other. And just so everyone is aware, after this story concludes, I've got a fairly robust outline for the next story that involves these characters, it's kind of like an Infinity War type thing. It will include characters from other fandoms, and I'm not saying which, but there is one that will be particularly fun to include.**

 **Reviews will get the next chapter out quicker, since it's always good to have you guys's response before I write it. Have good one!**

-MB


	11. The Watchman

_It is 02:58 on Mandalore, as Sabine Wren paints a picture on a blank canvas. Ursa Wren sits on a seat on the other end of the room, scrolling through a datapad, neither of them knowing who is coming down the hall. A clock on the wall ticks away, second by second. Minute by minute._

 _A man they call the Joker steps down a flight of stairs, and a young soldier guarding a secret entrance to the Countess's quarters. The Joker places a helmet on his head, as two large men fan out behind him, and he steps toward the guard. The two men seize the guard by the shoulders as he tries to fight back, and the clock strikes 02:59. The Joker approaches the young boy, placing a tablet inside the guard's mouth, and has his men drop him to the ground._

 _Sabine Wren is expecting another girl her age, they were going to an art gallery. I watch from outside a window as she hears a knock on the door. Fascinating, in my opinion. The strange coincidences in time that go completely unnoticed to most, and disregarded by others. The clock strikes 03:00 AM, the witching hour, as humans call it. I do not believe this. Those who orchestrated this event, both the Joker and the creator, didn't seem to notice this event. I find that strange._

 _The last remaining child of Alrich and Ursa Wren opens the door, to be met with a man grinning at her, and his outstretched hand holding a gun to her stomach. Her heart beat quickens, and her brain begins the fraction-of-a-second long process to work out ways for her to dodge it. I cannot allow this. I send signals to her brain to put her into a brief state of shock, long enough for the Joker to pull the trigger._

 _You see, this is the way it was meant to happen. Minor interventions are required to stop a cataclysmic event from occurring. Some may call me an emotionless being, others a frightening one. They are both correct. Emotions are ways for brains to comprehend events that are happening to the subject it resides in. I do not require tricks for my mind to understand events in time. Some may call me a god, but if there is such a being I am nothing like him. I'm a puppet like the rest of them, I'm just a puppet who can see the strings._

 _Someone once told me that a peace based on a lie is a peace nonetheless. If peace in time requires me to lie to others' brains, I will do so. Sabine Wren is no different. I've done it many times, but I now see a purpose for myself. A goal. A way to finally create peace, and if I must sacrifice a girl's ability to walk to accomplish it, I will. As a broken man once said-_ _**Never compromise, not even in the face of**_ **_armageddon._**

* * *

 **This is just something to hold you guys over until the next chapter comes out, I'm working on it now, but it'll take a while, because I've got this thing that's taking up most of my time. But this is not without purpose, this will come into play down the line. Some of you would know who this is, and I will go into this in further detail in that Stranger Things story I will write. To those who don't recognize this person, just know he's beyond any power levels ever present in any fandom. Period.**

 **I will get back to this next chapter, it's roughly halfway done, but I've got a few roadblocks in my way. I'm not sure when it will go up, but it won't be a long wait, just longer than usual. Speaking of which, apparently Avengers Endgame is like three hours and two minutes long, I'm bout to buy three popcorn bags for that movie! One for each hour! Reviews will definitely drag me back quicker, but until next time!**

-MB


	12. The Emergency Exit

**This came out a little quicker than expected. And there aren't too many things left in the way so we're back on track!**

* * *

 **Mandalore, 08:00**

This place was fascinating, the street fights that broke out every ten or so minutes, the cars flying gracefully above the bars and casinos, and a palace off in the far distance. In a way, it was very similar to Gotham, at least it was in the lower levels. That was where Bruce was now, looming on top of a hotel that overlooked one of the darker areas in the city. There was a quite shady-looking bar beneath him, with a few Mando warriors coming in and out, but it was almost all bounty hunters.

Bruce had a contact that told him to meet here, but he hadn't shown yet. Then again, he probably _wouldn't_ see him appear until later. He checked up on the tracker he placed on Hera's comm, which was showing her moving along the outskirts of the abandoned factory, but there was something else he had to take care of first. A few days ago his friend contacted him about something that had happened in his universe. Something very strange.

No matter what happened here, no matter what happened with Joker, Gotham came first. Always has, always will. As Bruce stared down at the bar, watching as the pedestrians entered and exited, until a red and yellow light appeared for a moment, entering the bar, and then disappeared just as fast. He knew that this was his contact. The Batman lept down from his perch, landing on a metallic bridge over the lowest level of the city, drawing a few glances, but this was Mandalore, they'd seen weirder.

He walked over the bridge and weaved his way through the crowd, entering the bar. The music blared loudly as he approached the counter, and he had at least four or five prostitutes try to get his attention, but he was used to it. He surveyed the room, but he didn't see his friend, "Nice place isn't it?" A voice came from behind, one that he knew quite well.

"Barry." Bruce said as he turned around to see him. He wasn't wearing the Flash suit, just a normal leather jacket and jeans.

He beckoned over to a table, "Care to sit?" Bruce silently walked to the booth off in the corner of the bar and sat down, with Barry sitting across from him, "So, you know this isn't a social call," He nodded, already trying to guess what this mystery incident could be. "So, you remember that button? The one with smiley face and blood splat on it?"

Bruce thought back to the incident, when some kid that looked a lot like Barry appeared in the cave, and left a smiley-face pin on the cave's wall. "Too well." Soon after this, the Reverse Flash turned up, and beat the living hell out Bruce. Thankfully, Barry showed up in the nick of time, and saved his life.

"So, it appeared again. The button," Bruce looked at his friend strangely. "But it showed up right after a nuke went off in Moscow, and someone framed Clark for it." He tried to process what he'd just been told. Thousands of people, gone. His friend, framed for it, "And then a week later, he went missing."

Bruce's head snapped up, " _What_?" If Superman was gone, Earth had lost it's first line of defense, and it's symbol of hope.

"Yeah, the public went nuts. At first they turned on him, after he was framed for the nuke in Moscow," Barry beckoned over to a waitress who placed a glass of some type of drink on the table. "Now he's gone. People are shining beacons into the sky to get him to come back." He took a swig of his glass, before cringing and putting it back on the table, "Jeezus, what is that?"

"What was his reaction to the framing?" Bruce asked, taking the glass and looking down into it.

The speedster stared at him strangely, "Angry, sad. Then he went to the Fortress of Solitude, where he went missing." Bruce flipped the glass upwards, needing the alcohol, and swallowed it all in one sip, as Barry stared at him in amazement, "How do you even do that?"

"You need me back?" Bruce asked, knowing he would be needed if things got worse.

Surprisingly, Barry shook his head, "Nah. Dick's actually doing a nice job, almost as good as you," That made the detective smirk in pride, he'd trained the kid well. If there was anyone he would entrust Gotham to, it was him. "Point is, things are bad. Really bad. The public's starting to turn on us, and if things begin to hit the fan, we're gonna have a serious crisis on our hands."

Bruce nodded, "Understood. You planning on staying?"

"No, I have to get back now. And who knows what'll happen if I try to do anything in another universe again." Bruce almost laughed at that. It was a fair point. The last time Barry intervened in matters in an alternate universe, Diana and Arthur went to war, Clark was never found by Martha and Jonathan Kent, and Bruce's father was Batman instead of him.

"Alright, I'll see you soon. Hopefully." And with a simple nod, the speedster was gone in a bolt of lightning, with no trace left, and the check left in front of him. _Idiot._

* * *

 **Abandoned Factory, Mandalore, 08:45**

"Wha- what the..." Ursa Wren's eyelids fluttered open as she found herself lying in a patch of grass, with a striped roof over her head, and cats walking around her. "Where am I?" She asked, not knowing to who, but she couldn't figure out where she was. Or why she was here, something about a 'top of the bill' thing. Her eyes began to focus, and she started to realize that the striped roof was no roof at all- it was a metal cage, "What the- ahhh!"

The Countess jumped in surprise as these short men jumped all around her, fangs out wide, with pink plastic angel wings on their backs. "Up, up!" They screeched, seizing her collar and putting something metal around her neck. A _leash_. They hit her in the head with the club as she started to recover, dazing her again, as they tied her arms and legs together with ropes.

It usually would've been a moment of pride for her to have herself so restricted that she couldn't move, because that often indicated her captors were scared of her, but she couldn't figure out why she was here. "What am I doing here?" She yelled as they unlocked the door to the cage, throwing it open. The dwarf-looking men stood her up and violently yanked on the chain clipped to the metal band around her neck.

Ursa looked up in horror as she saw and old, run down factory, but it was littered with neon lights and decorations. The disturbing part about it, though, was the dead body of a man, seemingly a civilian, lying motionless under a table, and a stain of dried blood on the ground next to him. The monstrosities that held the chain pulled her forward, making her fall on her stomach due to the confusion, as she landed in a puddle.

"Someone! Tell me what I'm doing here?" She coughed out water from the puddle, as she found herself sprawled out on the ground in front of a line of torches, leading up to a mountain of- baby dolls?

It was indeed, hundreds of dolls were piled on top of one another, with a velvet staircase leading to the top, and torches along each side, "Doing? Well, you're doing what every sane woman in your appalling circumstances would do," A familiar, twisted and demented voice came from atop of the mountain of babies, where a throne rested, and a figure in a purple suit, yellow bow-tie, and violet fedora sat, " _You're going mad_. Heheheh!"

"I- I remember!" The memory flooded back to her, Sabine falling to the ground, a bullet in her chest. The Joker destroying her quarters as his men captured Ursa.

"Remember?" The Joker laughed, standing up from his throne, as the short men yanked her upwards, "Oh, I wouldn't do that. I find the past such a worrying, anxious place! One moment you're lost in a carnival of delight, the childhood aromas, the flashing neon of puberty, all that sentimental candy-floss! The next, it takes you somewhere you don't want to be. Somewhere dark and cold, full nightmares and demons you'd hoped were forgotten!"

"You- you're insane!" She yelled at him, but the clown only laughed.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! You think? Memories can be vile, repulsive little brutes! Like children, I suppose. Heheheheheh!" The Countess clenched her fists, but the men behind her chain tugged her back behind her, towards what looked like a mine-cart, "But there's always a way out, _my way_! Madness!" They pushed her toward the cart as The Joker stepped down the stairs, twirling a black and gold cane as he walked, "Madness is the emergency exit, you can just walk right out the door and leave those pesky memories behind. _Forever_."

* * *

 **Two chapters left, ladies and gentlemen! Things are about to ramp up from here! Also, go back and read the last chapter if you have not already, it'll be vital later. To anyone who was confused by the last chapter, it'll be answered in the sequel(s) to this book. MANHATTAN will be the first sequel, but it will not involve these characters, but it will explain who that was in chapter 11. If you know, be quiet.**

 **Also, to Tython: Trust me with this, I've got more plans for Sabine (Start guessing now, everyone) than probably any other character, because the part with Barry is hinting at something, but not something I'm ready to reveal yet. Just stick around.**

 **There will be one or two one-shots following up this story, and they will be the only SWR stories for a while after this, until I'm done with MANHATTAN. Then comes the real big one, that I will let you know about down the line on this story. But I'm excited for this. Let me know what you thought of this chapter, it always helps to know you guys' opinions, and will get the chapters out quicker and better than before. Until next time!**

-MB


	13. Unforgettable

A bit of a trigger warning on this one, just a bit.

* * *

 **Mandalore, 09:10**

"Why am I here?" Ursa shouted into the darkness, the bumps on the rails becoming increasingly intense. She'd been carried through the darkness for at least twenty minutes at this point, nothing had happened in that time. She was beginning to think this was a practical joke.

Just as this thought ran through her mind, a loud screech seared into her ears, and five massive screens cut on all around her, with the face of the maniac who put her here plastered all over it, "Strange. Most sane women would have broken down from the quiet, odd," The Joker said, frowning for a moment before throwing his hands up in the air and grinning. "On second thought, it's not like you Mandalorians are the most sane people in the world to begin with any who, HAHAHAHAA!" Ursa glared at the screen, wishing more than anything she could break out of her bindings. "Or- galaxy, rather."

"You're lucky I have enough _sanity_ to be nothing like you," The countess growled. "After what you did to my daughter..." She stopped herself, she was trained not to show any weakness, and what that man did to Sabine was more than enough to drive her over the edge.

Unfortunately for her, he knew this already. "Oh, but that's why you're here," The Joker told her, baring his teeth in a wide grin. "Everyone has had a bad day in their lives. I did too. I... I can't quite remember what it was," Ursa yanked at the chains, a futile attempt to free herself. "But if I'm to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice! AHAHAHAHA!" It would have made her sympathetic if she didn't hate him so much, but it only made her hate him more, pretending to understand her pain.

"I'm going to see my daughter soon, and if I find out you did something permanent to her..." Ursa growled, but the Joker only laughed hysterically.

"Oh?" He said, the static on the screen hazing as he smacked a button next to him. "Then why don't you see her _now_?" Ursa looked up in confusion, before the screen cut off, as about a dozen more turned on around her, but they weren't video of the Joker.

It was Sabine. Dozens and dozens of photographs, each one showing something more horrific than the last. She was laying on the floor with blood everywhere, soaking her shirt and the carpet around her. Tears ran down from her eyes, she was clearly struggling to keep a grip on her life. Ursa stared in horror, before letting out an awful screech in heartbreak. "SABIIIINE!" Ursa's own eyes began to form tears, but she didn't stop them, somehow there was no urge to resist, no remorse. Just the horrible, empty feeling in her heart.

"Yes, you feel it now don't you?" The Joker spoke, his words like knives poking at her soul. "The horror, the anger, the fear. All the emptiness in your soul..." She curled up in ball, unable to look at the screens. "That's the madness sinking in." Another screech came across the speaker system the Joker was using, and a strange tune began to play.

 _'Unforgettable.'_ The song should have been pleasant, but it felt so out of place, so strange. _'That's what you arrrre.'_ Ursa began to shake, as audio began to play from the moments after Sabine was shot, as her sobs and screams were heard. _'Unforgettable, though near or faaaar.'_ She tried to focus on the calmness and happiness of the song, but she couldn't. _'Like song of looove, that clings to mee_.'

"If you could only see your face, HA! It's hilarious!" _'How the thought of you does things to mee.'_ Ursa began to shake, as Sabine's suffering began to sink into her heart. _'Never beforrre, has someone been moooore...'_ She started thrashing desperately at the chains, with so many feelings beginning to rush over her, too many to process, and none of them good. "There it is." The Joker said softly.

"AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHAAAAAA!" Ursa yelled, her eyes wide, and she thrashed her arms wildly around her slamming her fist into the side of the car. "I'LL KILL YOU! DO YOU UNDERSTAND? I'LL MAKE IT SLOW! SO SLOW AND PAINFUL THAT YOU'LL WISH YOU WERE NEVER BORN, YOU HEAR ME, YOU DISGUSTING PIECE OF KARK? I'LL KILL YOU!" _'...Unforgettable.'_

* * *

 **Outskirts Of The Factory, 09:34**

Hera pressed her back against the wall outside of the factory grounds, her fingers tightly wrapped around her blaster. Her eyes flicked around her surroundings, looking for any threats still hunting for her, "Is there anyone else here?" She turned to ask Chopper, who raised the dish on his top. It spun for a moment, leaving the Twi'lek in a state of anticipation, until the droid lowered it again.

 _One. Right behind you._ He told her, causing her to grip the handle of her blaster tightly, and taking in a deep breath. She placed her foot next to her, and spun around the corner suddenly, seeing a figure before her. She began to pull the trigger, before a strong hand seized her trigger arm, and pushed it up in the air. The blaster went off, shooting a searing hot beam of plasma into the sky.

The captain looked back at the person who held her arm up, and let out a breath of relief, "One, identify you're targets before you shoot," The Batman said, his eyes narrowing at her in what was probably annoyance. "Second, no guns." He yanked the pistol out of her hands, and placed it on his belt.

"What do you mean no blasters?" Hera asked incredulously, who's side was this guy on here?

The Batman turned around and began to walk inside the factory grounds, "When you're dealing with someone from my world, you play by _my_ rules," He growled, his cape flapping behind him. "Careful with this one, he'll toy with your mental state. More than anything the Imperials can do to you."

"I'm ready for him." Hera answered, walking inside with Chopper on her tail, probably scheming about Sabine's pistol she may or may not have put in his storage compartment.

The detective grunted, "We all think that at first. We're all wrong," He took something from his belt and turned to face her. "I'm going to scout the area, shout if you see him." It seemed a little unconventional, but Hera was a little more focused on the small black gun he was holding in his hand.

"What happened to _no guns_?" She mused, pointing at the weapon. He narrowed his eyes again and sneered, before holding the gun up in the air and pulling the trigger. A small, grey rope rocketed out of the barrel, hooking onto one of the chimneys above, and zipping him off the ground and into the dark of night, leaving Hera in awe, "I gotta get me one of those."

* * *

 _It is 22:45 on Lothal, eighteen years from the Alderaan incident. I watch as a young boy walks down the street with his mother and father, peacefully coming home from the market place. It's a rather sad scene, I must admit. They do not know that two dozen stormtroopers are lying in wait outside their home. They round a corner towards their house, as the charge packs on the troopers' weapons come to life._

 _As the father approaches the door, the troopers rush out from their hiding spots. One of the hits the mother with butt of his weapon, and another beats the father with an escrima stick. The child stands alone, screaming for his mother and father. This is the night Ezra Bridger's parents were taken from him forever. I've seen nights very similar to this before, a young boy watching his parents leave him in a dark alleyway._

 _There are trillions of possibilities that this scenario could result in, and even more if I were to intervene. Life is a precious thing. Someone taught me that a long time ago, but for it to continue, heroes cannot exist. Without heroes, the villains lose their purpose. If the Empire is there to punish those who stand against them, what will they do when there is no one to stand against them? They will get better. They always do._

* * *

 **I know it's been a while, I had some stuff going on. This story will still be wrapping up in a few more chapters, probably 1 or 2 more to go. After that, the person that keeps talking in Italics will become the main villain of this whole thing. I might wait to put out MANHATTAN until after Stranger Things 3 comes out on Netflix, but I'm not entirely sure yet. Sabine will come back soon, and I still have plans for the Sabezra dynamic. Anyway, please leave a review on your way out, as always. Until next time!**

-MB


	14. Bats and Clowns

**Krownest Infirmary, 09:55**

* * *

Sabine's pencil etched quietly against the board, seemingly the only sound in the entire facility. She couldn't stop her mind from wandering to the possible outcomes of whatever was happening to her mother, so she had picked up her sketchpad and began to draw. It was the way she'd been taking her mind off her demons for years, ever since Hera had given her a room on the Ghost. Her grandmother used to say that Sabine was the living embodiment of the ability to dream. She was never quite sure what that meant, but the more she painted, drew, or sketched, she began to understand.

She'd always painted her hopes and dreams on the walls of the Ghost, her aspirations were etched into her armor, but her demons were always buried beneath the facade of a happy-go-lucky con artist. Now, with this "Joker" figure, those demons all bubbled up to the surface. People deal with something like grief, anguish, and fear in many different ways, and Sabine dealt with it the only way she knew how- by dreaming.

She dreamed about peace. About a future. About Ezra. When that maniac had told her he'd killed him in that cell, she felt something she never had before. It was almost like some had blown a hole right through her heart, and as cliche as that sounded, she didn't feel pain, no loss, no sadness. She felt _nothing_. That nothingness had eaten away at her soul, that black and awful emptiness. She had reached out to feel anything, anything at all. Even overwhelming sadness, anything was better than feeling absolutely nothing.

The pencil scratched against the paper as she shaded in a sketch, at this point she wasn't even sure what she was drawing, it was almost like her imagination was ruling her actions without telling her what it was doing.

Naturally, when the "Batman" had told her he was indeed alive, she felt something again. Relief, happiness, and most of all, _hope_. She'd hoped more than anything to find Ezra one day, now that possibility seemed more and more remote. But even if he was out there somewhere, alive, she was okay with it. When she first woke up in this bed, the first thing she tried to do was get up, but he legs wouldn't move. She tried for five minutes before someone finally came to break the news to her.

She felt fear for her mother, who was somewhere out there alone with a madman. Hera and the Batman had gone to find her, which rekindled her hope. She trusted Hera with her life, and if there was anyone still around to find her mother, it would be her.

Sabine lifted the pencil from the paper, and looked down at what she'd drawn. Sure enough, it confused her. It wasn't that uncommon for one of her pieces to be confusing to her, apparently it happened to a lot of artists. This one was different though, it wasn't elaborate or complex, in fact it was quite simple. The only thing on the paper was a large black orb in the center of a black ring, with a small circle on the top of the ring. A hydrogen atom.

The last time she'd seen one of those was at the Imperial Academy, it didn't make sense. But then again, not a lot of things made sense right now.

* * *

 **Inside The Factory Grounds, 10:00**

The car came to a complete stop just outside the door Ursa had first gone through, angry and furious. Now, however, she was curled up in a ball, breathing heavily as she slowly raised her head up. Before her stood the Joker, leaning on his cane with a grin on his face. He seemed so satisfied in the execution of the mad house he'd put together, "Ah, there you are. I was beginning to worry you'd fainted from the excitement!" The clown approached her and tapped her on the head with his cane. "Now, what did you think, Mrs. Wren?" She wanted nothing more than to seize him by the neck and strangle him, but she was frozen, she could barely even breathe. "Speechless, of course! Heheheh!"

What she'd just been through, what she'd just seen... how could anyone, even the insane, laugh at it.

"Mrs. Wren? Hello?" He called softly, but the Countess said nothing, far too absorbed in shock and fear. "Ugh, boring!" The man waved his hand to his little freaks, who grabbed Ursa by the shoulders and dragged her into a cage, slamming the door shut behind them. "Why don't we leave the poor woman here so she can reflect on her, um... _tragic_ situation." Ursa barely looked up at him, a torrent of emotions surging through her heart. Horror, loss, fear... but most of all- _rage_. "Gentlemen, I give you the average woman!" He shouted to his lackeys, who gathered around him like he was some type of god. "They have frail and repulsive senses of "sanity" littered all over their society, but when too much wait is placed upon them... they _snap_."

"Kriff... you."

"Hush now, Uncle J. is speaking!" He shouted at her, before turning back to the little maniacs that followed him around. "How does it live, you ask? Well, the sad answer is: not very well!" The lights around them became shadows for a moment, before something shifted out of the way, and the light returned. Almost like something was moving around them, "Who can blame them? In a world a phsycotic as this, any other reaction would be-" The lights went out again, this time staying dark, and a large grin formed the Joker's face. The clown prince turned behind him to see a dark figure perched atop of one of the chimneys to the factory, a dark cape flapping in the wind, and distinct pointed ears. " _Crazy_." He finished.

* * *

The Batman stared down at the Joker, his fists clenched tightly, the rain plummeting down on his shoulders. _'I've been thinking lately.'_ He thought back to his conversation with the fake Joker, in a hopeful attempt to make things right between them. _'About you and me.'_ He jumped down from his perch, such a hope felt so naive and meaningless now. His cape unfurled in it's signature bat-shape, making him soar through the air.

 _'About how this is going to end.'_ As the Batman glided towards the Joker, the clown remained there, grinning like a maniac. _'Perhaps I'll kill you.'_ Batman raised his shoulders upwards, bringing his feet in front of him. _'Perhaps you'll kill me.'_ The Joker grabbed a knife from his pocket, holding it out in front of him. _'Perhaps sooner, perhaps later.'_ The Dark Knight slammed his boots into the Joker's chest, sending him flying backwards.

"Ah, it's so good to see you again, bats!" The Joker yelled at his longtime foe, who grabbed the clown's collar. "Oh no, I will not be beaten to a pulp this time!" He yelled, taking his knife and plunging it into the Batman's arm. "That comes later! AHAHAHAHAA" He pushed Batman off of him as the detective stuggled with his wound, as he rushed to the large double doors to the factory.

"Damn." Batman growled as the Joker disappeared inside the factory, clearly the maniac expected him to follow. He turned toward Ursa's direction, seeing her curled in a ball inside the cage, rocking herself back and forth uneasily. The detective rushed over to her, taking a batarang from his belt and slicing the lock in two, watching the metal fall to the ground. He opened the door slowly, not quite sure what to expect from her, "Countess?" He asked, tapping her shoulder, as the woman stopped rocking. "Can you here me? What did he do?"

Ursa slowly began to look up at him, but unlike the many damsels he'd saved, she had a look of utter hate and anger. "More than you can know." She brushed his hand off her shoulder, standing up on her own. "I want that mad man here now, so I can put a hole where that smile used to be."

"Is she okay?" Hera's voice crackled from the comm system, the rain beginning to intensify with the gray sky.

"She's alright," Bruce said as he watched the Countess grab her pistols from the Joker's "throne". "You need to keep her here, however. She wants to kill him."

"What's so bad about that?" The Twi'lek asked, her heavy footsteps sloshing in the puddles around her.

The Batman turned to the doors the Joker had run through, slowly walking towards it, "She's not the only one whose suffered at his hands." Bruce approached the door carefully, pressing his hand against it, but it wouldn't budge.

"What are you going to do?" The Captain's voice came again, as Bruce threw his shoulder against the door, making it swing open.

"I'm going to take him in." He said, as he stepped into a pink-lit hall, with balloons and candy riddled all over the narrow hallway. "By the book."

* * *

 **Sorry again for the wait, but I've been a little conflicted on how to write this chapter, it was probably just my writer's block kicking in again. This is one of the last chapter's of this book, as I've said two billion times already, so I'll spare you most of my preaching. This climax will differentiate from the source material more than the rest of the chapters, and I won't just have it about Batman and Joker, because I know that's not what most of you are here for. I'll also explain how the Joker got here in the first place, and where Ezra's relationship with Batman fits in the story.** **I'm also considering a discord server, let me know if you guys are interested in that. If so, an invite will be put in the story. (With some minor tweaking because of fanfiction's rules)**

 **Reviews will always help get chapters out quickly, and it's very good to know how all of you feel about this. Like actually, it really does help.**

 **Until next time!**

-MB


	15. The End Of The Game

"So... I see you received my flash drive," The Joker's voice boomed through the speakers, "I did _so_ want you to be here." Bruce wandered aimlessly throughout the dark purple maze he found himself inside, not quite sure where to go next. He'd lost track of time somewhere from thirty minutes to an hour ago, but the Joker had only just started talking to him. "I assume you've been wondering how I arrived here, Bats."

The Dark Knight paused for a moment, it wasn't something he'd actually taken into consideration. How _did_ he wind up here? It wasn't like it was easy to bridge into another reality- not even Wayne Enterprises could've developed something so advanced. The only reason Bruce was here was because of Barry's treadmill, which- if the speedster ran fast enough- could warp into other universes and timelines with the speed force.

"Well, the true answer is- I'm not sure!" That wasn't surprising. "See, I was just wandering through Gotham, fresh off a nice kidnapping, but you weren't there!" Bruce had expected this, if anyone could've noticed a difference between Dick's Batman and his Batman, it was the clown prince of crime. "Then, something wonderful happened! I fainted for no apparent reason- or maybe I walked off the pier... oh, it doesn't matter- and woke up here, on Mandalore! With this handsome blue gentlemen."

Batman _quirked_ an eyebrow in interest, before suddenly stepping on something that sank into the ground, "What the-" Just then, the floor opened up into a sink hole of acid coated spikes. He slipped when the floor beneath him snapped away, and started tumbling through the air into the chasm.

"He said to me... well actually I don't remember... but it was something to do with Superman missing, our old pal, Batwing, being here with a new family." The Joker continued as Bruce grabbed onto a ledge, keeping himself from falling. _A blue man?_ "He also had a lot of very confusing things to say about time, but that's when I stopped listening. But I did take his information about Ezzy boy to heart."

The detective pulled himself up onto the ledge, "So that's what this is about," He growled, gritting his teeth in anger. "This is a revenge scheme."

"Hardly!" The Joker yelled over the intercom, as Bruce continued along the maze, "You see it doesn't matter if you take me back to Gotham, lock me up in the asylum and wait for me to get out again. Ursa Wren has been driven _mad_." In truth, Bruce knew that the Countess was fine, but he was interested in the Joker's scheme. "I've shown you that there's no difference between me and everyone else, that all it takes is one bad day to drive someone out of their mind!" Batman rounded a corner to find a doorway into a new section, one that was lined with mirrors rather than walls. "You had a bad day once too, am I right? Why else would you dress up like a flying rodent?"

Bruce crouched behind a gray crate, watching closely and carefully.

"What made you the way _you_ are?" The Joker asked, his voice almost echoed, like he was getting closer. "Wife offed by the mob? Son carved up by some mugger? I bet it was something like that." A shadow moved behind one of the mirrors, which Bruce took as a que. "My point is- is that it's all a joke! Everything everyone ever cared about, everything anyone has ever struggled for- it's all a demented, monstrous gag!" Bruce walked up to one of the mirrors, and got ready to pounce.

"Why can't you see the funny side? WHY AREN'T YOU LAUGHING?" The Joker yelled.

* * *

 _CRRRRASH!_

The Joker whirled around in fear as his nemesis came crashing through the mirror, his eyes white and furious, as a fist made impact with the clown's face. "One, it wasn't funny the first time," The Batman grabbed the Joker's collar, "Two..." He raised his fist and slammed it into the Joker's skull, sending the maniac flying through a mirror behind him. "Bats aren't rodents."

"Aren't they?" The Joker laughed back, pulling out a revolver and aiming down the sights at Batman. He fired two metal bolts at the detective, who quickly weaved through them, and leaped up into the air. The clown attempted to duck out of the way as the Dark Knights boot, but he was too slow, and the metal made impact with the side of his head, making him fall to the ground.

Batman brought his fist down onto the floorboards, but the clown prince rolled out of the way. "I happen to know that Ursa Wren is fine. She's as sane as she ever was." There was a flash of horror on the Joker's face, before he grabbed a piece of glass from the mirror, swinging it frantically at him. The Batman dodged the blade, catching the Joker's arm, "Maybe you were wrong this whole time, maybe people _don't_ break by just one day..." He leaned in closely, looking the maniac in the eyes, "Maybe it's just you."

The Joker grit his teeth in frustration, just as the flower on his purple jacket shot out acid onto the detective's sleeve, "No!" He yelled, pushing the Batman into another mirror, sending him flying outside. Bats didn't know yet. He didn't know what his _true_ target was.

* * *

"Countess, what are you doing?" Hera asked, following close behind as Ursa stormed around the factory, holding her blasters tightly in her hands. "You should take a breath, you've been through a lot."

"Precisely, Captain Syndulla," Ursa spoke, pressing her back against the side of one of the dark grey spires, slowly peering around it, "That man shot my daughter. Killed my son... I- I cannot allow him to get away with this." The Twi'lek frowned. Deep down, she knew she had the same desire. Sabine was like a daughter to her from the beginning, a sweet and inspired artist that fought for the freedom of her home. All of that and more, yet it had all been ripped away by this man.

The Mandalorian turned around the spire, rushing into a courtyard area, where a series of grunts and cracks could be heard. "They're close." Hera said, looking around for the signature ears and cape of her new accomplice. "Chop, scan for life forms in our immediate area." The droid grunted a series of annoyed curses, something about how he always did all the intellectual stuff, before locking onto a signal near the back of the factory.

Chopper sped past both Ursa and Hera, rolling out of the courtyard and into a back hangar. Hera began to run after her droid, but Ursa grabbed her sleeve, "Listen, Syndulla," She said, her eyes angry, sad, remorseful, "I want him _dead_. Not by the book. Dead. Understand?" Hera sucked in a breath, but nodded.

* * *

Bruce slammed his fist into the maniac's face as the Joker swung an old stun rod at him, the two of them locked in a duel of perspectives and truths. Bruce was sure to make every hit count, for the suffering his nemesis had put the Wren family through, for Sabine, for Ursa, for himself... for Ezra. He had one job to do, and he failed. He failed Ezra Bridger, the boy who he owed his life to, the boy who he trained, who became a beacon of hope for the galaxy he lived in. He owed it to him to finish this, to make sure this would never happen again.

"Hitting- ugh! Harder th- than before, bats?" The clown prince asked, he still had a massive grin plastered all over his face, like this was still all some type of sick joke. Bruce didn't answer, he only slammed his gauntlets against the Joker's face again, sending him flying backwards, and the baton flying from his grasp. Blood leaked out of the clowns mouth, "Y- you don't get it... do you bats?"

The detective grabbed the Joker's hair and slammed his face against the side of an old hovercraft. "What are you talking about?"

"The girl... ehh... Sabine! Ezra, me, you! It's all meaningless!" Bruce grabbed the Joker's neck, holding him up against the moonlight, "It's all a joke... _we're_ all a joke! I've seen it!" He tossed the Joker back onto the ground, and stepped on his chest, "I've seen _him_."

"Who." The Batman asked, pressing his foot against the clown's ribs, "Is." The Joker groaned in pain, followed by a laugh. " _He_?"

The physchopath only laughed hysterically in response, "Do you believe in fate, bats? Because I sure as hell do now."

Bruce knelt down on the Joker's chest, "Last chance."

The Joker grinned, and held up a stop watch, before clicking the button on the top, stopping the time. "Ahh, right on time." The clown held it up to Bruce so he could see, "Twelve days, six hours, seven minutes, and five seconds. That's what he told me. That's what he told me when I got here." Bruce's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "He told me that in that time exactly I would be beneath your boot, in a night sky that wasn't our own, and that's it. That's where our little game ends," The Joker beckoned for the Dark Knight to come closer, to which Bruce leaned in a little more, " _Bruce._ "

The Batman shot back up in shock, his eyes wide. "H- how..."

"He told me. He told me everything," The Joker laughed, "Y'know. It's been fun, bats. I've enjoyed every second of our game. But you were wrong. Ursa Wren wasn't my subject here, she was just a distraction." Bruce managed to get over his shock for a moment, narrowing his eyes in caution, "What happens when you put somebody who has magical powers, who assigned their most trusted ally to protect those he loved, and then show him what a maniac can do to his girlfriend?" Bruce's eyes widened in horror, this entire scheme, this entire plot- it was all a distraction. "It's time to get on to next life now bats," The Joker closed his eyes, but there was no apparent threat to him at the moment. "As for _his_ name..." Bruce forced himself to listen once more, his eyes watching his nemesis intently.

"They call him-" Before the Joker could finish, a streak of red plasma slammed into the clowns head, burning his brain to a crisp. He was gone. Bruce took a moment, and breathed in, before checking the clown's vitals. He'd flat-lined. The detective had just taken his first breath without the Joker in his life. But it didn't feel like relief. It felt like something had just been taken from him.

"What was he talking about?" Hera's voice came from his side, she was approaching rather quickly. Ursa's hand was outstretched, her finger on the trigger of her weapon, and she looked quite satisfied.

"He left us another game to play." Ursa said, walking up to the Joker's body and stepping on the last twitch of his arm.

"No." Bruce said, drawing both their attentions, as he looked on in genuine fear. "Not with who he really drove mad today it's not. It's not a _game_ anymore."

"Who? Who was it?" Hera asked, her arms stretched out wide in confusion, but the detective didn't look back at her.

He raised his head to the stars and took in his first breath with a new threat on his hands. " _Ezra."_

* * *

 **That's it. We did it. Agent of Chaos is now officially complete. I must say I had quite a good time writing this, and I thank all of you for your support through all of this, even though I've made some missteps along the way. This story was influenced by Alan Moore's "The Killing Joke", with some of DC's other works mixed in. I will write an epilogue for this story, and maybe a few one-shots before moving onto MANHATTAN. I look forward to continuing this story (as long as you guys are on board as well). Also, I still have a lot of really exciting ideas going through my head, feel free to ask questions or anything like that. Thanks for everything,**

-MB


	16. Announcement!

**Hello, there! I know it's been a while since I put out my last chapter, but I wanted to share this with you all:**

 **ht)tps:/( .c)om/file/d/1gHWDlPGjrI3cB9lyOjTB3jIORS5Ks6xy/view?usp=sharing**

 **It's a trailer for that big crossover I am going to do, paste it into your address bar. (Just get rid of all the parenthesis)**

 **I decided to skip MANHATTAN and go right for the next big story. It will continue the adventures of Batman, Hera, Sabine and the rest of the crew, while also introducing characters from the current STAR WARS trilogy, the MCU, Watchmen, Stranger Things, and of course, everyone's favorite- Red Vs Blue. I have thought about this story for a long time, and this will still have a dark, but not too dark story to it. I can really go crazy since this isn't based on any existing story, and I can't wait to share it with you all.**

 **I will let you know when it's up!**

 **Thanks again!**

-MB


	17. Announcement The Sequel!

**Alright, the new story was just published like five minutes ago. It could take a few hours for it to go up, but the story is called Avengers: Judgement Day and is labeled a Avengers/Star Wars crossover.**

 **Again, it will continue the story set up here, while introducing a larger storyline involving the guy who was speaking in italics, as well as bringing the MCU, the new SW trilogy, the Justice League, Stranger Things, Watchmen, and of course, Red Vs Blue into the fray. Thank you to everyone for supporting this story, and I can't wait for you all to see what's coming next!**

-MB


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